Obi-Wan show to track Ewan McGregor's transformation into a sad desert hermit
The prequel trilogy of Star Wars films doesn’t end particularly well for our old pal, Obi-Wan Kenobi. Sure, he has the high ground and all, but at the end of the day, all the general really has to show for himself is a bisected apprentice, a couple of useless babies, and a whole bus load of dead younglings and friends. Is it any wonder he changes his name, quits his job, and spends the next 18 years holding his own personal Burning Man out in the deserts of Tatooine?
All of this is pretty perfectly laid out by the end of Revenge Of The Sith, which strongly implies that, having handed baby Luke Skywalker off to his blue milk-guzzling step-uncle, it was time for “Ben” to settle down, build a few bridges over the River Kwai, and then really steer into this whole “weird desert hermit” thing.
But apparently there’s a lot more to it than that: Ewan McGregor has confirmed this week that there was a lot more going on in Kenobi’s life in between Episodes III and IV than working out a proper treatment for Jawa Rash. McGregor has now formally confirmed that said period will be the stated focus of the six-episode Disney+ Obi-Wan show that was revealed at D23 earlier ths year. McGregor didn’t give out any major plot spoilers in his recent interview with Men’s Journal, but did confirm that the series will lay out what Obi-Wan got up to in the intervening years, as well as his mental state re: the whole “Raised the kid who murdered pretty much everybody” issue.
McGregor also expressed his own personal relief about the project finally coming into the light; he’s apparently been working on this thing for the last four years, and has had to relentlessly lie about its existence and form across that time. Per Kathleen Kennedy, the show’s scripts are already written; it’ll begin filming next year, with an expected air date some time in 2021. “I want to get closer and closer to how Obi-Wan felt while Alec Guinness was playing him,” McGregor said in the interview. “I feel like I’m grayer and nearer him in age, so it’ll be easier to do that.”