After the non-awful experience of watching The Force Awakens last year, most Star Wars fans are feeling cautiously optimistic about the future of the newly arisen franchise. At least with the caveat that Lucasfilm can eventually break free from the tractor beam of Death Star-centric plot lines. As such, all theoretical future installments and side-stories remain bathed in the warm light of promise, and the vague idea of a Obi-Wan Kenobi spin-off series is not grating to the soul.
So, when Ewan McGregor recently expressed interest in reprising the role in inherited from Alec Guinness, general reaction among fans was not “How dare you ruin my childhood?!” so much as it was, “Oh, that’s an interesting idea.” Among those intrigued fans is none other than Gareth Edwards, director of the soon-to-be-released first standalone Star Wars film, Rogue One. The 41-year-old British filmmaker definitely seems jazzed by the concept, but don’t get your hopes up just yet. He says—or claims—that he has no inside knowledge of such a project. In an interview with Screen Rant, Edwards expressed both his apparent excitement and his supposed ignorance.
I love all the stuff from the original Star Wars films, and the trilogy, so anything that went in there I would be excited about. There’s loads of rumors online, and actually, weirdly, working in Lucasfilm, you don’t know. People ask you, “Is this happening? Are they going to do this? Are they going to do that?”…and I don’t know. You’re just kept in your own little bubble of your own little film, and then if you do something that’s going to affect another movie or something like the animated series or graphic novels, we’ll talk about it. But I, as a fan looking on the internet, nothing to do with Lucasfilm, I kinda go, “Whoo, Obi-Wan Kenobi film, that’d be cool.”
Maybe it’s for the best that we have no definitive word on this yet. The quality of both Rogue One and the young Han Solo space western remain to be seen. How they’re accepted by fans will likely inform the decisions of the suits at Lucasfilm.