UPDATE: Deadline has amended their report to indicate Ewan McGregor is still in talks to return as Obi-Wan Kenobi for a Star Wars TV show at Disney+.
Ewan McGregor is returning to Star Wars in an Obi-Wan Kenobi TV show that will be exclusively available on Disney's streaming service, Disney+. The disappointing box office performance of Solo: A Star Wars Story forced Lucasfilm onto something of a course correction, and as a result, they put their Star Wars spinoffs on hold.
Lucasfilm's new strategy seems to be focused on the Disney+ streaming service. They're working on a number of live-action Star Wars TV shows, including The Mandalorian and a series starring Cassian Andor from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Disney CEO Bob Iger reported that there's also a third live-action series in the works, and there have been recurring rumors that it will star Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi. Lucasfilm had originally planned a Kenobi project to be one of their spinoff films, but in February there were reports the script had been adapted into a six-episode series for Disney+.
Deadline has confirmed that these reports are true, with Ewan McGregor now signed up to reprise the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi in an as-yet-untitled TV series. This will be exclusively available on Disney+, adding to the wealth of original content Disney has booked for their new streaming service. Further details are currently being kept under wraps.
It seems very likely that the Obi-Wan Kenobi TV series will be set during the character's self-imposed exile to Tatooine. Certainly, there's some evidence that was Lucasfilm's plan for the spinoff movie; it reportedly had a working title of "Joshua Tree," an amusing nod to a U2 album that featured a cover with Zabriskie Point in Southern California's Death Valley. That location was used for some of the Tatooine scenes in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, so the working title seemed more than a little appropriate. If the Disney+ TV series really is an adaptation of the film script, then it too can be expected to explore life on the desert planet. It will be interesting to see how a Jedi who's used to deciding the fate of worlds settles down to live an isolated life on a backwater, crime-ridden planet. No doubt the transition was a very difficult one for Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Disney is gearing up for their D23 fan convention, which will run from August 23-25, 2019. Even though there's a wealth of upcoming content to be explored from the Mouse House, it's highly likely that their focus will mainly be on marketing the Disney+ streaming service and all of the projects that will be featured in it. Saturday features the "Go Behind the Scenes with The Walt Disney Studios" panel, which usually includes an abundance of Star Wars news. Presumably Disney believes that D23 is the perfect place to officially announce the Obi-Wan Kenobi series, and hopefully, they'll reveal a few more details.
Source: Deadline
