The slate of Star Wars standalone films is poised to expand with a new movie focusing on Obi-Wan Kenobi!
THR reports Lucasfilm has tapped Billy Elliot director Stephen Daldry to direct a new film starring the character previously played by Ewan McGregor. The actor is not attached to the project, but in the past he has expressed interest in playing him again. The character in his older form was played by Alec Guinness.
Obi-Wan Kenobi made his debut during A New Hope. A then-presumed hermit on Tatooine, going by the name of Old Ben, he played a key role in Luke’s journey to becoming a Jedi — setting into motion a large part of the events of the Original Trilogy. Though he met his end at the hands of Darth Vader on the Death Star, it certainly wasn’t the last time we would see the character.
George Lucas made Obi-Wan a central focus of the Star Wars prequels — positioning him as a mentor and brotherly figure to Anakin Skywalker, following the death of his own Master, Qui-Gon Jinn. The relationship between the two, which would ultimately culminate in that fateful duel in A New Hope, is one of the most compelling and tragic of the series.
But with much of Obi-Wan’s story already told, through the films and also the animated series The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels, where in the timeline could this standalone film sit? The two most obvious choices, of course, are either to chronicle his life prior to meeting Anakin, as Qui-Gon Jinn’s Padawan, or what he was doing during the time of his self-imposed exile on Tatooine.
“I’ve always thought there was a story to tell between my last one and Alec Guinness’ first one,” McGregor said last year. “It would be fun to film that story now I’m older. I’d be the right age. I’m forty-five, Alec Guinness was what, sixty? I could do two of them (laughs)!”
No script exists at the moment, but THR says Daldry “would oversee the development and writing with Lucasfilm brass.”
The Obi-Wan Kenobi movie will be the third in a series of spinoff movies Lucasfilm is creating to expand the franchise. Other iconic characters are also expected to get their own films in the years ahead. Yoda and Boba Fett are two other characters who’ve been rumored to get spinoffs.
With The Jast Jedi hitting theaters this December and Han Solo arriving in May (now under the direction of Ron Howard), the Obi-Wan movie could possibly arrive in 2020. Star Wars: Episode 9, directed by Colin Trevorrow is set for May 24, 2019.
Developing… more soon.
Source: THR
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