Last week we reported on a rumor that Ewan McGregor—who’s always made it extremely clear that he’d back for more Star Wars stuff pretty much the second anybody asked him—might soon be reprising the role of Jedi master Obi-Wan Kenobi for a new Disney+ show. Said rumor has now been confirmed, courtesy of McGregor himself, who took the stage at the D23 expo tonight to let the world know: Obi-Wan’s back, baby!
Now, admittedly, there are those who would happily exile anything carrying even a whiff of prequel stank away from Star Wars proper, and into the inescapable depths of the Disney vaults. But McGregor was always a perfectly fun presence in those movies; certainly, he came the closest to actually nailing the comedy vibe that George Lucas so restlessly, and mostly unsuccessfully, reached for across that trilogy of films.
Lucasfilm mastermind Kathleen Kennedy was also on hand to talk about the show, and while no plot details were revealed—which is interesting, because Ben was supposedly doing little more than pulling “crazy hermit duty” on Tatooine in the years between the films (and yes, Star Wars: Rebels fans, we know that’s only true from a certain point of view)—the company is reportedly pretty serious about pursuing this. All eight scripts for a first season have already been written, and the current plan is for filming to begin in early 2020.