Over the past week, numerous reports have come out pointing to the Obi-Wan Kenobi TV series being delayed due to creative differences between Lucasfilm and star Ewan McGregor. While we’ve now had it confirmed that the show is indeed being pushed back from its original production start date, McGregor himself is keen to put those earlier rumors to bed, decreeing that the situation isn’t as “dramatic” as online chatter would have it.
When speaking to the press at the premiere of Birds of Prey, the Scottish actor went so far as to label talk of him having a heated split with Lucasfilm “bullsh-t,” clarifying that the decision was made to halt production so that the scripts can be better refined. And McGregor thinks what they already had was pretty great, anyway.
“The scripts are really good. I saw 90% of the writing and I really liked it,” McGregor said. “All this bulls— about creative differences and all that stuff, none of it is true. We just pushed the dates … last episode, [Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker] came out, everyone had more time to read the stuff that had been written, and they felt that they wanted to do more work on it.”
The star went on to specify exactly when the Obi-Wan series will now go before cameras. “So they slid the shoot. It’s not nearly as dramatic as it sounds online,” he stated, adding that the studio “pushed the shoot to the beginning of next year.” The initial plan was to kick things off this summer, so it seems the schedule has been set back around six months or so. Hardly the “indefinite” delay that we were hearing about at first from various outlets.
McGregor also said he believes this shouldn’t even affect the show’s release on Disney Plus. “I think they want to keep the same release date, so it’s not really gonna affect the viewer in any way,” he concluded. “It just simply gives them more time to write and make the scripts even better.”
Going by McGregor’s comments, The Hollywood Reporter’s writeup of the situation appears to be the most accurate, then. THR has shared that Lucasfilm is looking to replace original screenwriter Hossein Amini as, in its current form, there were concerns that the show was too close to The Mandalorian. It was likewise stated that the episode count may go down from six to four. That said, when McGregor was asked about the reduced episodes, he replied: “I haven’t heard that.”
Clearly, there’s still some confusion going around, but the good news is that the Obi-Wan Kenobi series isn’t being hit with any serious delay.
