Ewan McGregor May Raise Lightsaber Again in Disney+ Obi-Wan Kenobi Series
It’s important to start with the fact that this has yet to be confirmed—but—Deadline is reporting that Ewan McGregor is in talks to return as Obi-Wan Kenobi for a Diseny+ series.
“The 48-year-old Scottish actor is in talks about reprising his role as the heartfelt but headstrong Jedi master known as Obi-Wan Kenobi in a yet-to-be-titled Disney+ series, Deadline has confirmed,” Dino-Ray Ramos and Geoff Boucher report.
McGregor took on the iconic role of the younger Kenobi (Alec Guinness played him in the original trilogy) in George Lucas’s Star Wars prequel trilogy, beginning with The Phantom Menace (1999), then Attack of the Clones (2002) and finally Revenge of the Sith (2005). McGregor had a voice-only cameo in J.J. Abrams The Force Awakens (2015), but that was the last we saw or heard of him.
You may remember there had been talk of an Obi-Wan Kenobi stand-alone film, with Stephen Daldry (The Hours) directing and McGregor presumably starring. That plan was scuttled (as was a stand-alone Boba Fett movie to be directed by James Mangold) after Disney decided to take a breather on spinoffs after Solo: A Star Wars Story.
Deadline reports that the stand-alone Kenobi film has “morphed” into a big-budget series for Disney+ in the same way that the Boba Fett film turned into Jon Favreau’s The Mandalorian series. Here’s Deadline on the importance of these new series:
“Disney+ is a small-screen venture of colossal importance to Disney. The digital subscription service has become an all-hands-on-deck mission for Disney with a bevy of shows from Marvel Studios and major-budget original programming, such as the high-profile remake of The Lady and The Tramp.”
We should have confirmation one way or another when Disney’s D23 Expo comes later this month. That would be the obvious venue to announce McGregor’s return as Obi-Wan.
Featured image: TOKYO, JAPAN – SEPTEMBER 05: Ewan McGregor attends the premiere of ‘Christopher Robin’ on September 5, 2018 in Tokyo, Japan. (Photo by Keith Tsuji/Getty Images for Disney)
