Obi-Wan’s Long Road
The long-awaited Obi-Wan Kenobi series is facing continuous hurdles even without considering the pandemic. After writer Hossein Amini (Driver) exited the show in January, a new hope has emerged in the form of new writer Joby Harold (King Arthur). The entire series will be directed by Deborah Chow, who previously directed two of the best episodes of The Mandalorian for LucasFilm. The show will also feature the long-awaited return of Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan.
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The production of Obi-Wan was hoped to begin in August of 2020, but it got delayed. Now the show will start filming in January 2021. With production on hold, the entire schedule for Obi-Wan, including the release date, will have to be re-assessed. If what the press release states are true, this show won’t premiere until 2022.
McGregor also responded to a report back in January that the Hossein Amini-penned scripts were being dumped in favor of a new writer. He clarified and stated that people at Lucasfilm are taking more time to assess the show’s writing now that The Rise of Skywalker is out, nothing more dramatic than that.
As first announced at D23 last August, the show is supposed to have scripts already written according to LucasFilm president Kathleen Kennedy. She also said that they were really close and they are ready to start shooting in 2020. However, that clearly was not the case.
The show faced at least three major setbacks since that time. First, Kennedy was contradicted when it became public that the scripts were not finalized and that they would be rewriting the series. Secondly, writer Hossein’s exit from the project led to the hiring of new screenwriter, Harold. Finally, the global pandemic was certainly a large setback whose effect on the production and industry still is unseen. The result of all of this can be the reason for the show not coming until 2022. In the end, hopefully, the show will turn out to be a great one, which is the most important thing, for both fans and LucasFIlm as a whole.
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The press release came out in preparation for the release of Disney+ in France, which launched April 7th. The press kit seems to be have been written on February 3rd. So there’s a chance that the dates are not up to date. There is also a disclaimer at the end of the press kit, stating that dates are subject to change, which indicates that the dates are not locked in. Further delays are possible considering the coronavirus situation, but we can hope that the shows will arrive as soon as possible and turn out to be great.
What do you think of this potential delay at LucasFilm and Disney+? Are you excited about the Disney+ Star Wars shows? Let us know in the comments below.
Source: /Film
