Ewan McGregor says Disney's Obi-Wan delay "not really as dramatic as it might seem"

Ewan McGregor is doing damage control. After a week of social media whispers, it was confirmed on Thursday that Disney+’s series exploring Obi-Wan Kenobi’s descent into the desert was being put “indefinitely” on hold due to concerns over the scripts. Poor McGregor, who just wanted to attend a Birds Of Prey event in peace, kept his cool while being mobbed by reporters, repeatedly asserting that the delay is not a big deal.

“I think we start shooting early next year as opposed to summer this year,” he told Variety. “I think the scripts are great. They’re in really good shape. They want them to be better. I think we keep our same airdate. All good. I didn’t realize until we got here tonight and everybody is going, ‘Oh, my god!’ But it’s not really as dramatic as it might seem.”

Meanwhile, he contradicted reports of the show being on hold in the below video interview with AP. “It’s not been put on hold, it’s just been pushed back a little bit. The scripts are excellent and they just want them to be better. So we just pushed it back, but it’s not—it’s very dramatic, it would seem, online, there’s all kinds of shit online about it, but it’s only just slid back a bit. We’re still shooting it, I think it will still be aired when it was meant to be and I’m really excited about it. It’ll be fun to play again.”

He went into more detail about the scripts when approached by IGN:

“It’s just slid to next year, that’s all. The scripts were really good. I think now that Episode IX came out and everyone at Lucasfilm’s got more time to spend on the writing, they felt like they wanted more time to spend on the writing. I’ve read about 80, 90 percent of what they’ve written so far, and it’s really, really good. Instead of shooting this August, they just want to start shooting in January, that’s all. Nothing more dramatic than that. It often happens in projects, they just wanted to push it to next year. It will have the same release date, I don’t think it will affect the release date. They’re still shooting towards having the film [show] release when it was going to be originally.”

McGregor’s remarks about the scripts, however, don’t quite align with recent reports. The Hollywood Reporter relayed that there were concerns about the series being too close in tone and plot to The Mandalorian—Baby Luke, apparently, was giving off some serious Baby Yoda vibes—and that “the entire package has been jettisoned.” Variety, meanwhile, reports that Lucasfilm is “looking for new writers following the departure of scribe Hossein Amini.” Of course, McGregor might not fully be in the know, as he also told IGN he hadn’t heard that the show’s six-episode order was being reduced to just four. Or maybe everyone is wrong and they’re going to make a Babu Frik show instead.

For now, at least, McGregor remains attached, as does director Deborah Chow, who helmed some of the The Mandalorian’s best episodes.