K.T Simpson
For better or worse, production on Disney+’s much ballyhooed “Kenobi” series has shut down.
There had been chatter last week that the plug had been pulled on the project, with staffers at Pinewood informed that they should go home and not wait by the phone – with word on the street that the “Star Wars” series had been shelved “indefinitely”.
Collider and The Hollywood Reporter confirmed the reports, saying that the script were the issue – even though only two had been written – and they’re now going to toss out the story and start from scratch. The trade also says that the brass are considering reconfiguring the series and making it a 4-part mini-series instead of having 6 eps.
Hossein Amini was writing, Deborah Chow, of “The Mandalorian”, was directing, and Ewan McGregor was set to reprise his role as Obi-Wan Kenobi from the “Star Wars” prequels.
Lucasfilm are now on the hunt for a new writer.
It’s unclear exactly what was wrong with the previous script but one source said that the Kenobi story was way too similar to the one told in “The Mandalorian” and saw the Jedi master protecting a young Luke and Leia, as opposed to baby ‘Yoda’.
Hours after the news broke, IGN caught Ewan McGregor at an event, and he told the outlet he did not expect the release of the series would be delayed, but noted filming would shift from this summer to January 2021.
“It’s just slid to next year, that’s all. The scripts were really good,” McGregor said. “Now that Episode IX came out and everyone at Lucasfilm has got more time to spend on the writing, they felt they wanted more time to write the episodes.”
Watch this space…
