Over the years, Lucasfilm have shown that any good idea for a Star Wars project is never truly off the table, even if it ends up arriving in a vastly different form than originally intended.
George Lucas had ideas for a Sequel Trilogy of his own before selling up to Disney, and while The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker proved to be massively divisive among fans, they still made billions at the box office. Logan‘s James Mangold, meanwhile, was once signed on to direct a Boba Fett pic before the Anthology experiment was abandoned entirely, but the bounty hunter will finally take center stage in December when The Book of Boba Fett arrives.
Academy Award nominated director Stephen Daldry was also in talks to direct an Obi-Wan Kenobi film several years back, but the legendary Jedi is now set to be the subject of his own Disney Plus series instead, with shooting on Ewan McGregor’s return set to kick off next month. And in a recent interview, the actor admitted that he’s more excited for his solo show than he was for the Prequel Trilogy.
“We start making it in the late spring. We’re gonna be shooting it here in L.A. It’s so funny, every week there’s a new report. My dad keeps sending me links, saying,”I thought you were shooting in L.A.?’. Because there’s another tabloid expose that we’re shooting in some bizarre town somewhere, but we’re not, we’re shooting it in L.A.
We’re shooting it much in the way that The Mandalorian series is shot, using some of that technology. It’ll be just 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 just more exciting even than it was then, I think. I’m just thrilled to get a chance to play him again. I’ve always felt that there was a story about him between my ones and Alec Guinness’s ones, and that’s what we’re gonna do. It should be really interesting.”
Fans have been clamoring to see McGregor get back into the robes of Obi-Wan for over fifteen years, and the studio’s plan to continue expanding their small screen Star Wars universe has worked out pretty well for everyone involved. It’s interesting to note, though, that the 49 year-old confirms L.A. as the shooting location when sets are being built for something in the United Kingdom. It makes sense for Obi-Wan Kenobi to utilize the same Stagecraft technology used for The Mandalorian, but it also casts some doubt on the recent reports that Mando’s third run of episodes will be starting production in April.