Ewan McGregor Talks About 'Obi-Wan Kenobi' After Production Wrap
High on every Star Wars fans' wish list has been a movie and/or series about Obi-Wan Kenobi set between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, to help give us some more information about what exactly Obi-Wan has been doing ever since going into exile on Tatooine to watch over and protect Luke from the Sith. John Jackson Miller previously wrote a book, Kenobi, to help fill in some gaps. And another novel, Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader, gave us a brief glimpse at the end of that book of Obi-Wan's life on Tatooine, when he discovers that Anakin/Vader survived their duel on Mustafar.
However, since those books were written prior to Disney's 2012 acquisition of Lucasfilm, both of those novels now only exist in Legends. Within canon, we have gotten glimpses of this time period via an interlude in the Ahsoka novel and Kenobi's journal entries in Jason Aaron's Star Wars series from Marvel Comics. When the Disney acquisition of Lucasfilm occurred, and they announced that there would be more Skywalker saga movies in addition to standalone movies, many fans expressed hope that there would be a standalone movie about Obi-Wan set during the aforementioned time period. Unfortunately, Star Wars movies have been on hiatus ever since the release of The Rise of Skywalker and Lucasfilm seems to be heading in a different direction, focusing more on live-action series, no doubt buoyed by the success of The Mandalorian, which has already spun off several series. Despite this shift, Kenobi fans need not lament, as Disney hasn't forgotten them.
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In fact, Kathleen Kennedy officially announced back in 2019 that, instead of a movie, Obi-Wan Kenobi would be getting a limited live-action series and that Ewan McGregor, who skillfully portrayed a younger Obi-Wan Kenobi during the prequel trilogy movies, would be reprising that role. Additionally, Deborah Chow, who directed a couple episodes of The Mandalorian, would be directing the series. As a matter of fact, in spite of denials to the contrary from McGregor and others, Obi-Wan Kenobi has been in development since around the time of The Force Awakens.
The COVID-19 pandemic, unfortunately, delayed the filming of the series. However, McGregor recently announced that filming on the show has wrapped and that he is very happy with the finished product and his fellow cast mates, including Hayden Christensen, reprising his role as Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader. The addition of Christensen seems to suggest that Vader and Obi-Wan's confrontation in A New Hope may not have been the only time they saw each other since the events of Revenge of the Sith, but the details of how Vader will fit into the storyline are unclear, as of yet.
To quote McGregor regarding director Deborah Chow, "We finished shooting our series. It was really, really good fun. I really enjoyed working with Deborah Chow." Of the final product, he says, "I think it will not disappoint. I think it's gonna be good." McGregor also noted some differences in technology between the days of the prequel trilogy and now: "The new (Volume) technology we employed was cool. It was a different experience than making the original three films that I did, and I really, really liked it."
Given McGregor's reputation and acting skills, as well as the success of live-action Star Wars series in the Disney era to date, I have no reason to believe it will be anything other than phenomenal. Although everybody was originally hoping for a movie, it seems like being a given a limited run series will turn out to be even better, as we will now be able to have more time with Kenobi than we ultimately would have had with a two-hour standalone movie. The series begins streaming on Disney+ in 2022.
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Source(s): The Direct