After being announced during the Disney D23 Expo convention in Aug. 2019, Lucasfilm has revealed on Mar. 29 that Disney Plus’s new show Obi-Wan Kenobi will begin production in April. Though there is not a solid release date as of now, it is likely, given the production schedule, that the new Star Wars spinoff series will be released sometime in late 2021 or early 2022.
According to Obi-Wan himself—Ewan McGregor—in an interview he did with Men’s Journal back on Oct. 2019, “The storyline sits between Episode III and Episode IV…the Jedi Order was falling apart. It will be interesting to take a character we know in a way and show him—Well, his arc will be quite interesting, I think, dealing with that the fact that all the Jedi were slaughtered with the end of Episode III. It’s quite something to get over…I want to get closer and closer to how Obi-Wan felt while Alec Guinness was playing him. I feel like I’m grayer and nearer him in age, so it’ll be easier to do that.”
Although not at liberty to give up too much information about the upcoming show, Ewan McGregor also revealed that the series would be comprised of six, one-hour long episodes, similar to other Disney Plus productions like The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
On Mar. 29, the official Star Wars Twitter account announced the cast for the new series with Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen, naturally, reprising their iconic roles as Obi-Wan and Anakin Skywalker, respectively. Included in the lineup are Joel Edgerton and Bonnie Piesse, reprising their roles as Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru from Star Wars: Attack of the Clones. Also included are newcomers to the Star Wars universe, Kumail Nanjiani, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Sung Kang, Rupert Friend, Moses Ingram, Indira Varma, Simone Kessell and Benny Safdie.
As for those joining the universe, according to TechRadar, “there’s no word on what role they will play in proceedings. It’s possible that some of them will be cast in roles as Empire commanders or generals, while there are bound to be allies that Obi-Wan has on Tatooine.”
The new show will be directed by Deborah Chow, who also directed two episodes of The Mandalorian in the first season (“The Sin” and “The Reckoning”). Kathleen Kennedy, Michelle Rejwan, Deborah Chow and Ewan McGregor are executive producers, along with writer Joby Harold.
According to Variety, “‘Obi-Wan’ is one of several ‘Star Wars’ live-action series currently in the works at the streamer. Aside from a new season of ‘The Mandalorian,’ others include the “Rogue One” prequel focusing on Cassian Andor, ‘Rangers of the New Republic,’ an Ahsoka Tano ‘Mandalorian’ spinoff series, and ‘The Book of Boba Fett,’ which is also a spinoff of ‘The Mandalorian.'”
The TV series will launch exclusively on Disney Plus when it is released.
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