Star Wars Kenobi Series

[Badomero Schoulund]

EwanMcGregor stars as the title character, reprising his role from the Star Wars prequel trilogy. Co-stars such as Joel Edgerton, Bonnie Piesse, Jimmy Smits, Hayden Christensen (Vader), and Ian McDiarmid also reprise their prequel trilogy roles. The project originated as a spin-off film written by Hossein Amini and directed by Stephen Daldry, but it was reworked as a limited series following the commercial failure of the film Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018). McGregor was confirmed to be starring in the series in August 2019, and Deborah Chow was hired to direct all of the episodes a month later. Production was scheduled to begin in July 2020, but the series was put on hold in January 2020 because Lucasfilm was unsatisfied with the scripts. Joby Harold was hired to rewrite the series and serve as showrunner in April 2020, executive producing with Chow, McGregor, Kathleen Kennedy, and Michelle Rejwan. Additional casting took place in March 2021. Filming began by that May in Los Angeles, using StageCraft video wall technology, and wrapped by that September. Natalie Holt composed the original score, while Star Wars film composer John Williams wrote a new main theme for Kenobi that William Ross adapted for several scenes.

Obi-Wan Kenobi premiered on May 27, 2022, with its first two episodes. The other four episodes were released weekly through June 22. The series received generally positive reviews from critics, with praise directed towards McGregor's performance, the action sequences, John Williams's new main theme, the character-driven narrative, and the series' emotional weight, although the writing received some criticism. It also received multiple accolades, including winning Best Limited Event Series for Streaming and Best Guest Starring Role on Television (for Christensen) at the 47th Saturn Awards, as well as a nomination for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series at the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards.

Additionally, Ming Qiu, a stunt performer from the Star Wars series The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, portrays Jedi Master Minas Velti during the Order 66 flashback,[18] Grant Feely appears as Luke Skywalker, Anakin's son,[29] and Anthony Daniels reprises his franchise role as C-3PO while Temuera Morrison appears as a homeless veteran clone trooper after playing the clones in previous Star Wars media.[18] Ewan McGregor's daughter Esther-Rose McGregor plays Tetha Grig, a spice dealer that Kenobi encounters on the streets of Daiyu.[30] Dustin Ceithamer portrays the droid NED-B.[31] Liam Neeson reprises his role as Qui-Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan's deceased master, in an uncredited cameo appearance.[28]

Disney CEO Bob Iger announced the development of several Star Wars standalone spin-off films in February 2013.[32] Obi-Wan Kenobi was the overwhelming winner of a poll by The Hollywood Reporter in August 2016 that asked which Star Wars character deserved a spin-off film.[33] Ewan McGregor, who portrayed Kenobi in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, had informally expressed willingness to reprise the role, which led to a formal meeting with Lucasfilm so the company could gauge his interest in returning to the character for a spin-off film.[6] Development on such a film soon began, with Stephen Daldry entering talks to direct the project in August 2017.[34] McGregor was set as a producer on the project.[10] Daldry was expected to oversee the development and writing with Lucasfilm,[34] and contacted Hossein Amini about writing the film. Amini joined the project in late 2017.[35]

In May 2018, the film was reportedly titled Obi-Wan: A Star Wars Story, with a plot involving Kenobi protecting a young Luke Skywalker on the planet Tatooine during tensions between local farmers and Tusken Raiders.[36] Production on the film was expected to take place in Northern Ireland under the working title Joshua Tree,[36][37] beginning in 2019 at Paint Hall Studios in Belfast once production on the final season of Game of Thrones ended in late 2018.[38] However, Disney cancelled their planned Star Wars spin-off films, including the Kenobi film, following the financial failure of Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018). Lucasfilm's focus changed to making series for the streaming service Disney+, such as The Mandalorian.[39][6] In August 2018, McGregor said he had been asked about a Kenobi spin-off for "years and years" and was happy to be involved but said there were no plans for such a film at that time. He was interested in exploring the character in the time between his portrayal in the prequel films and that of Alec Guinness in the original trilogy,[40] and wanted to see the story of "a man who's lost his faith" that could show how his version, who "always has a funny line to say or always seems to be calm and is a good warrior", becomes a "broken man" and has to get "back together again" to match Guinness's portrayal.[10]

In November 2019, Amini said the series' time period was fascinating since Kenobi is dealing with the loss of his friends and the Jedi Order, which allowed Amini to explore aspects of the Star Wars franchise other than action, such as its spiritual side. He took inspiration from the sources that Star Wars creator George Lucas was originally inspired by, including Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Samurai history and culture, and Buddhism. Comparing the series' scripts to his original film plans, Amini said he was able to explore the character, politics, and history more in the series than in a two-hour film where "there is always an imperative for the action and the plot to move particularly fast".[35] Chow felt her work on The Mandalorian was the best training she could have for the Kenobi series, learning from that series' executive producers Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni.[44]

Pre-production on the series was underway at Pinewood Studios in London by January 2020,[45] and screen tests were taking place with potential actors opposite McGregor.[46] By the end of the month, rumors began circulating that the series had been cancelled due to production problems. While this was not the case, the series was put on indefinite hold and the assembled crew was sent home.[45][46] Kennedy was said to be unhappy with the series' scripts,[46] which reportedly featured a storyline similar to the story of The Mandalorian, in which the title character protects "The Child", with Kenobi protecting a young Skywalker from various threats.[29][46] Chow had shown these scripts to Favreau and Filoni, who expressed concern over the similarities to The Mandalorian and encouraged Chow and the series to "go bigger".[29] Lucasfilm began looking for a new writer for the series to start over on the scripts, with Chow still expected to direct.[46] Kennedy explained that they were hoping to have a "hopeful, uplifting story", and said executing that would be tricky given the state that Kenobi is in after Revenge of the Sith. She added, "You can't just wave the magic wand with any writer and arrive at a story that necessarily reflects what you want to feel".[6] The goal was for pre-production to begin again in mid-2020 once the scripts had been rewritten.[45] The series was also reportedly being reworked from six episodes to four,[46] but McGregor said he did not believe this was the case. He added that Lucasfilm had decided to spend more time working on the scripts following the release of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019), and filming had been postponed until January 2021, but he did not think this would impact the series' planned release schedule.[47]

Joby Harold was hired to take over as writer from Amini in April 2020,[48] and serve as showrunner.[49] That October, filming was delayed until March 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[50] At Disney's Investor Day event on December 10, Kennedy announced that the series was officially titled Obi-Wan Kenobi, and confirmed that Chow was directing.[1] In February 2021, McGregor revealed that filming for the series would take place in Los Angeles rather than London and Boston, Lincolnshire, England, as had previously been reported.[51][52] The series is executive-produced by Kennedy, Michelle Rejwan, Chow, McGregor, and Harold,[53] and consists of six episodes.[54]

Obi-Wan Kenobi was conceived as a limited series, with Chow describing it as "one big story with a beginning, middle, and end". Despite this, Kennedy said there was a chance that more of the series could be made due to the enjoyable time the cast and crew had creating it, as long as there was a compelling story reason to return to the character,[6] with both McGregor and Christensen expressing interest in making another season.[55][56] In April 2023, Kennedy noted a second season was not considered an "active development" for Lucasfilm, reiterating Chow and McGregor's interest in more, and saying the company might return to the character and storyline "down the road".[57]

According to Chow, the story went through "significant changes" after Harold's hiring,[6] though some story elements conceived by Amini are included in the first three episodes and the finale, with Amini and Stuart Beattie receiving writing credits for those. Hannah Friedman and Andrew Stanton were additional writers on the series.[58][59] Harold wanted to explore what happened between McGregor's portrayal of Kenobi and that of Alec Guinness in the original trilogy, and noted that the series takes place when the Empire is "in the ascendancy" and the Jedi have been wiped out, with any remaining survivors being on the run and in hiding.[6] He said that Kenobi's past, particularly his relationship with Anakin, makes him a "man who's very much defined by that history, whether he wants to be or not". He added that a crucial part of Kenobi's journey will involve "reconciling that past and coming to understand it and coming to understand his place in it", and also the "places he has to go emotionally as well as physically, and some of those battles he has to fight", which ultimately have "to do with facing that past and understanding who he was, his part in his own history, in the history of others".[5]

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