Scottish actor Ewan McGregor will once again be reprising his role of Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi in a Star Wars television series for the upcoming streaming service Disney+. McGregor first played Kenobi in the 1999 film Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace and portrayed the character throughout the entire prequel series. McGregor later had a small voice cameo in 2015’s The Force Awakens, the first Star Wars film under the Disney banner. Sir Alec Guinness first played the character in the original Star Wars film from 1977. Rumors of the currently untitled Obi-Wan Kenobi series had been circulating around the internet for the past week before being officially confirmed by Deadline Hollywood. The Hollywood Reporter later wrote that the series will span six to eight episodes, with several of the installments also being directed by McGregor.
Disney and Lucasfilm were rumored to be looking at a spinoff film centering around Kenobi in 2018. McGregor later commented that the studio had never approached him about reprising his role, although the actor did say that he would love to play the character again. Disney later announced that they were putting a moratorium on Star Wars spinoff films after the financial disappointment of last year’s Solo: A Star Wars Story. The Kenobi series will be the third Star Wars show on Disney+. The first series, The Mandalorian, will premiere when the service launches this November. Another series featuring Rogue One characters Kassian Andor and K-2SO will premiere in 2021. Bob Iger, CEO of Disney, said earlier this year that the studio was looking to develop several Star Wars series for Disney+. Elaborating, Iger feels that making television series for the platform makes better financial sense than releasing numerous big budget blockbusters.
While plot details on the Kenobi series have not been revealed yet, most fans theorize that it will take place in the 20-year span between the prequel series and the original series. According to storylines created by the animated series Star Wars: Rebels, Kenobi lived on Tatooine during that time period, where he watched over a young Luke Skywalker as the Empire consolidated its power. Other fans are hopeful that the series will explore the rivalry between Kenobi and Ray Park’s Darth Maul. Maul was last seen at the end of Solo where it was revealed that he was now a powerful fixture in the galaxy’s organized crime network.
