Star Wars’ Obi-Wan Kenobi Disney+ Series Put on Hold: Reports

There’s more trouble in the galaxy far, far away. The as-yet untitled Disney+ series centred on Obi-Wan Kenobi — with Ewan McGregor returning to reprise his role — has reportedly been put on hold. Scripts written by Hossein Amini (Drive) have been thrown out, with Disney-owned Lucasfilm now looking for a new writer. The Obi-Wan Disney+ series was deep into pre-production and planned to begin filming soon, but crew members at Pinewood Studios, London have now been sent home. For what it’s worth, the show isn’t cancelled — just delayed. McGregor and director Deborah Chow (The Mandalorian) remain attached to their respective roles.

Collider was the first to bring word of the new behind-the-scenes development on the Obi-Wan Kenobi prequel series at Disney+, with The Hollywood Reporter confirming the report shortly after. Per one individual who spoke to THR, the story was an issue as it “trod similar ground as The Mandalorian, seeing the Jedi master — that’s Kenobi — lending a protective hand to a young Luke and perhaps even a young Leia, perhaps mirroring how the Mandalorian took Baby Yoda under his protective custody.” Another person who spoke to THR said Lucasfilm is looking to scale the Obi-Wan series down from six to four episodes.

Two people familiar with the matter who spoke to Collider said a new timeframe has not been given to the crew and that it would be down “indefinitely”. At the same time, Collider says the plan is to rework the scripts — only two episodes had been written so far, per THR — and hope to enter production in summer 2020. But that could always change. Disney had no comment. The report posits that Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy would rather get the story right before they begin filming.

Considering the recent history of Star Wars, that would be the smarter decision. Rogue One underwent major reshoots with co-writer Tony Gilroy taking over from Gareth Edwards. Solo directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were fired deep into production, with Ron Howard taking over. Colin Trevorrow was removed as writer-director from Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker early on, with J.J. Abrams returning in the role. And the Game of Thrones creators exited their Star Wars deal. Even the Obi-Wan prequel was originally planned as a movie with a different director, but that’s not the case now, likely due to Solo’s failures

It’s a volatile time for Star Wars, though there are still many projects in development. In addition to the Obi-Wan series, there’s a second season for The Mandalorian, and a Rogue One prequel centred on Cassian Andor (Diego Luna). For the big screen, Lucasfilm is developing a trilogy from The Last Jedi writer-director Rian Johnson, a film from Marvel chief Kevin Feige, and possibly another from Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi.