The Obi-Wan Kenobi Disney+ series was originally going to be a movie, Ewan McGregor reveals. After years of rumors, Lucasfilm finally confirmed that the fan-favorite Jedi Master will be headlining his own project during this year’s D23 Expo. However, the actor shares that his Star Wars comeback project was supposed to play out on the big screen.

Plot details for the Obi-Wan Kenobi project are still tightly kept under wraps, but it will take place eight years after the events of Revenge of the Sith. The Disney+ miniseries will run for six to eight episodes with hints that Joel Edgerton will be back to reprise his role as Uncle Owen. Considering McGregor’s age in relevance to Sir Alex Guinness’ when he played the role in the original trilogy, the confirmed time setting for the series perfectly works well.

Speaking with Comingsoon.net while promoting his latest project, Mike Flanagan’s Doctor Sleep, McGregor opened up about his much-anticipated reprisal of Obi-Wan for Obi-Wan Kenobi. Expressing his enthusiasm to step back into the Star Wars franchise, the actor also revealed that a lot has changed since the project was pitched, including the decision to transform it to a series instead of a movie.

The Obi-Wan Kenobi project has long been in secret development inside Lucasfilm and for years, McGregor had to lie about his involvement with it. However, there was a point where its film version was slowly taking shape with Billy Elliot and The Reader director Stephen Daldry reportedly helming. Principal photography was supposedly begin filming in January 2019 at Pinewood Studios UK, under the working title of Joshua Tree, which all backed up reports that it was slayed for a 2020 release. While McGregor didn’t really get into the reasons why Lucasfilm decided to make the film-to-series switch for his project, it can be remembered that the company shelved their Anthology films following the financial disappointment that is Solo: A Star Wars Story.

“It wasn’t always going to be a series, not initially. When we first started talking about, that wasn’t really in the cards but everything’s changed so much, so quickly. It’s really exciting that it is now. I’m really into the idea to be able to tell the story over several hours instead of just one hit. I think it’s going to be quite cool.”

In any case, most fans prefer the series format of an Obi-Wan Kenobi Disney+ show than a one-off movie. This way, creatives including The Mandalorian’s Deborah Chow as the director, have more time to really delve into the character’s story and not be limited by around two-hour runtime. Thus far, fans have only seen the Jedi Master during this unexplored time setting in Star Wars: Rebels where he was revealed to be secretly looking after a young Luke Skywalker. Whatever else he was doing during that time-frame will more likely be the core narrative of his upcoming show.

More: Everything We Know About Star Wars’ Obi-Wan Kenobi TV Show

Source: Comingsoon.net

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