Brow Beat

Forget the Obi-Wan Kenobi Movie. Now There’s Reportedly an Entire Series in the Works.

Ewan McGregor, as Obi-Wan Kenobi, leans against the doorway of a starship.
Talk about a new hope. Lucasfilm Ltd.

Though the news has not been confirmed by Disney, several outlets are reporting that actor Ewan McGregor is currently in talks to reprise his role as Obi-Wan Kenobi in a Star Wars series for the company’s upcoming streaming service, Disney Plus. McGregor’s performance as a young version of the character—originally played by Alec Guinness, who received an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal—was one of the bright spots of the franchise’s prequel trilogy, beginning with The Phantom Menace in 1999 through Revenge of the Sith in 2005.

There’s a lot we still don’t know about this project, like what time period it would take place in or when it would be released, and like Anakin Skywalker on Mustafar, we’ve been burned before. Rumors of a stand-alone movie focused on McGregor’s character have been swirling for years, but Solo: A Star Wars Story’s underwhelming performance at the box office in 2018 reportedly led Lucasfilm to put the development of any additional spinoff films on hold. Then, Boris Johnson (of all people) renewed hope in the movie late last year when he mentioned that George Lucas had been scouting filming locations in Northern Ireland for “the follow-up biopic of the life of Obi-Wan Kenobi” during a speech about Brexit. It’s possible that the “biopic” Johnson referred to may actually be the series rather than a movie. McGregor has publicly expressed interest in returning to the role before.

A show about the Jedi master would be just one of several new Star Wars–related projects planned for Disney Plus, which launches in November. In addition to making all of the existing Star Wars films available in one place, the service will also be home to two confirmed live-action Star Wars series—The Mandalorian and a Rogue One prequel—as well as a new season of the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which was canceled shortly after Disney first acquired Lucasfilm but is being revived thanks in part to a years-long fan campaign.