They say any publicity is good publicity, but with the kind of week Disney and Lucasfilm have been having in regards to the untitled Obi-Wan Kenobi series, they might not agree.
Multiple reports from earlier this week have ranged from drama on set to the possibility of cancellation and in the last 24 hours alone, the Disney Plus show has reportedly been delayed indefinitely with the crew being sent home. Not a good look for the beloved Star Wars character. With all of these reports and speculation though, who could we turn too to get some real intel? Well, how about Ewan McGregor himself?
While at the premiere for his new film, Birds of Prey, McGregor spoke with ComicBook.com and gave fans a rather detailed update on the status of the show and the reason for the delay, saying:
“It just slipped to next year, that’s all. The scripts are really good. I think that so now that Episode IX came out and everyone at Lucasfilm’s got more time to look to spend on the writing, they felt like they wanted more time to write the episodes. I read about 80-90 percent of what they’ve written so far and it’s really, really good. And instead of shooting this August, they just want to start shooting in January, that’s all. It’s nothing more dramatic than that. It often happens in projects, they just wanted to push it to next year.”
Based on this quote, it sounds as if the studio is looking to take as much time as they need to make Obi-Wan great, which is perfectly fine. After all, the response to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was less than ideal and coming off of the success of Disney Plus’ first series, The Mandalorian, Lucasfilm is obviously willing to delay production if it means a better show.
McGregor also said that the delay shouldn’t affect the release date, either, telling ComicBook.com:
“It will have the same release date, I don’t think it will affect the release date. They’re still shooting towards having the [series] released when it was going to originally release.”
So, should fans feel at ease after McGregor’s comments? Or is he just spinning this to give the project some positive press? That remains to be seen, but he did shut down reports that the series had been reduced from six episodes to four, saying: “I haven’t heard that.”
Despite so much upheaval, Deborah Chow is still attached to direct the Obi-Wan project and we know that the show will center on Kenobi’s life on Tatooine following the events of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith as he seeks solitude to mask his guilt for what transpired.
When it’ll arrive, we still don’t know, but we’ll at least be getting another season of The Mandalorian before seeing Obi-Wan, which should keep fans somewhat satisfied in the meantime, right?
