Ewan McGregor Shares Production Update On Obi-Wan Series, While Debunking Many Rumors
The Obi-Wan Kenobi series is something that has been rumored about for years, far back enough to when it was believed that it would be a film. If that was in fact in the cards, then it was repurposed for a TV miniseries for Disney+. And that makes sense, given the highly positive reception that The Mandalorian has gotten as viewers have watched it on the streaming service.
The release date and production start date of Obi-Wan Kenobi has shifted over time, with there being different reports of when these would happen. Currently, the show is expected to come out in 2022. As for the production start date, Ewan McGregor had said last October on The Graham Norton Show that filming would begin in March. That is just a month away now. However, during a marathon stream with Eddie Izzard this week, McGregor provided an update:
"We start making it, um, in the late Spring and [we're] gonna be shooting it here in L.A. and not, as...it's so funny, every week, there's a new report...my dad keeps sending me links saying 'I thought you were shooting it in L.A.,' because there's another tabloid, y'know, exposé that we're shooting it in some bizarre town in somewhere, and then we're meant to be making it in Boston, and then we're meant to be making it -- no, it wasn't Boston, it was Boston, England..."
So rather than March, it sounds like filming may begin in May. In the above quote, McGregor also touched upon some reports that have been going around about where the show will be filmed. It was believed that the series would be filmed in Boston, Massachusetts, and then it was believed that the show would be filmed in Boston, England. But now we have concrete clarification that the series is being filmed in Los Angeles, California.
"But we're not, we're shooting it in L.A. and, uh, we're shooting it much in the way that The Mandalorian series was shot using some of that technology."
It makes a lot of sense that the series would use some of the same technology that was used for The Mandalorian. McGregor specifically mentioned "The Volume," which has been a huge asset for the production of the first live-action Star Wars series. He seems to be a fan of the show himself.
"I loved that, I really am [a fan]. I really liked it. I like the format of it and I like the, sort of, um, the Western nature of it, like it's an old-fashioned TV Western, y'know? It's brilliant."
With Obi-Wan in exile on Tatooine, one cannot help but wonder whether the Western elements are guaranteed to carry over. This was done very well in John Jackson Miller's Kenobi novel that came out back in 2013. McGregor went on to talk about how excited he is to return to the role.
"It'll just be great to do it again. It's so funny...I did my last one in 2003 and it's such a long time ago...The idea of doing it again now is, sort of, more exciting even then it was then, I think. I just, um, thrilled I get a chance to play him again and...I've always felt that there was, that there was a story about him between, y'know, my ones and Alec Guinness' ones...so it should be, should be really interesting."
Between McGregor's last movie and Guinness' first movie, there is an in-universe gap of 19 years between the films, which is plenty of time to explore Kenobi in exile. On Disney Investor Day, it was revealed that the series takes place 10 years after Revenge of the Sith, so it sounds like it will be around the halfway point between that film and A New Hope. We could be seeing McGregor's Kenobi become more and more like Alec Guinness' Kenobi, thus creating a nice bridge between the character's portrayals in the prequel era and the original trilogy era. While filming has not started quite yet, it is still reassuring to know that it is still happening, and that its main star is enthusiastic about the whole thing.
Source(s): The Direct