https://nerdist.com/article/disney-obi-wan-kenobi-star-wars-series-put-on-hold/

Last week, rumors swirled that Disney+ cancelled its recently announced Obi-Wan Kenobi series starring Ewan McGregor. Fans panicked, but evidence indicated those reports were untrue. According to a report Thursday on Collider, the Obi-Wan series was delayed indefinitely, although it is not outright cancelled. Ewan McGregor and Lucasfilm seemingly remain committed to making this series a reality.

Lucasfilm

The report says that producers for the show, set to begin shooting at Pinewood Studios in London, sent the crew home. The hope is that the show could start gearing up again to start shooting as soon as this coming summer. Why the reason for the delay? Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy evidently reacted unhappy to the scripts. As they get reworked, it’s unclear whether or not screenwriter Hossein Amini (Drive) and director Deborah Chow (The Mandalorian) will stay on board. Another story in The Hollywood Reporter added that the feeling was that the current scripts were too similar to The Mandalorian, and had Obi-Wan protecting a young Luke (and possibly Leia?!?)  from hostile forces. They also said the project had gone from six episodes down to four.

As most Star Wars fans know, Lucasfilm originally conceived the Obi-Wan series as a feature film. But after Solo flopped at the box office, the studio decided to take all of those “A Star Wars Story” side movies and transform them into Disney+ series. Rumor has it that the Josh Trank Boba Fett movie simply morphed into The Mandalorian. And thus, the Obi-Wan movie became a series as well. Rumors became fact when Ewan McGregor finally confirmed the series on stage last summer at the D23 Expo. He even admitted he’d kept it a secret for nearly five years.

Lucasfilm

So what becomes of the Obi-Wan Kenobi series now? As long as Ewan McGregor remains committed to the role, I don’t think Disney+ will cancel it outright. Fans have been clamoring for years to see something new with McGregor’s Obi-Wan ever since he last wielded a lightsaber in Revenge of the Sith, and it’s exciting to imagine him playing a version of the legendary Jedi Knight that hues closer to Alec Guinness’ portrayal in A New Hope. If nothing else, Lucasfilm probably doesn’t want to dodge questions for the next decade or more about how they dropped the ball on a potential Obi-Wan show.

If Lucasfilm is unsure of the creative direction of the potential Obi-Wan show, it’s probably better to hit pause on production until they get their ducks in a row. There’s no firm release date to meet (as with The Rise of Skywalker), and no one wants another situation like what happened behind-the-scenes with Rogue One and Solo. With the level of anticipation that the Kenobi show has, this is a show people want to see come together harmoniously. Here’s hoping this all gets sorted out soon, and we see Ewan McGregor swinging his lightsaber on set very soon.

Featured Image: Lucasfilm

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