Word around the halls is that Disney is in negotiations with Ewan McGregor for an unknown project. But from a source commenting on some of the more interesting conversations happening behind closed doors, it’s for McGregor to once again transform into the venerable Jedi Master, Obi-Wan Kenobi.
This is nothing new as far as rumors are concerned. The mill has been churning in regards to a stand-alone Obi-Wan story for a while now; reported by the likes of our good and trusted friends over at Screen Rant (via a report by Making Star Wars). In fact, many people and colleagues have been hearing rumblings of Obi-Wan not being done in the Star Wars Universe. And now, according to this source, Disney has been courting Ewan McGregor “not to be a force ghost, but for a post-Episode III Kenobi.†They go on to add they’ve heard from multiple people that Disney wants an Obi-Wan Kenobi TRILOGY of films, outside of the Anthology series. This adds some credence to a past story found at Cinelinx who had previously reported the same rumor.
The obvious idea to start (at least for me), is for McGregor to appear in 2016’s Star Wars Anthology: Rouge One (even though Gareth Edwards ruled out Jedi saying at Star Wars Celebrations: “The absence of Jedi is omnipresent. The characters in the film realize that the “gods†are not coming to save us. It comes down to a group of people who don’t have magical powers who band together to bring hope to the galaxy.â€) Though I wouldn’t discount a cameo appearance, especially considering the teaser trailer featured one of Alec Guinness’s iconic quotes from the original movie. Most likely, I’m sure, it will focus more on the Rebels and their heist, and will more than likely connect to the Star Wars Rebels show than the prequels.
The other option supported by our source is that the film (or films) would focus on Obi-Wan’s adventures between the two trilogies as he watches over a maturing Luke Skywalker. The film(s) would be standalone adventure(s), with the possibility of characters like Owen Lars and Darth Maul appearing.
It definitely seems like Disney would capitalize off of the popularity of McGregor’s performance, and the open time period for the characters adventures. Seeing the transformation of the Kenobi character from the end of Episode II to the wise sage of the original film has a lot of potential, and I’d definitely like to see some closure to the Darth Maul storyline that was left open ended at the end of The Clone Wars. After all, Maul’s return and subsequent expansion in Clone Wars is now ‘canon.’ So it could work.
That’s the big one there; and an idea many fans would most likely get behind. Whether it’s true or not remains to be seen. With Cinelinx and the other mentioned sites commenting, where there’s smoke, there is fire…
Of course, deals will have to be made; stories will have to be written. A lot could go wrong before it goes right. So for now, this is speculation on the sources’ part.
