With the success of Rogue One last year and the highly-anticipated Han Solo film set to arrive next year, it was only a matter of time before the next Star Wars spinoff was announced. And as some predicted, it looks like it’s going to be a standalone Obi-Wan Kenobi movie.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, director Stephen Daldry is in talks with Disney to helm the film centering on the mysterious Jedi master, who went into hiding in the years between Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: A New Hope. There is no script for the film yet, so it’s unsure if the film will focus on this gap in Obi-Wan’s story, or if it will take place before the prequels and show how he became a Jedi to begin with.
Daldry certainly seems like an interesting choice for director. He’s not exactly a blockbuster or action movie guy, and instead got his start in theater, where he is a Tony Award-winner. He moved on to films in 2000 received an Oscar nomination for directing Billy Elliot, and has since helmed serious Oscar-nominated dramas like The Hours, The Reader, and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. Needless to say, if Daldry does come on board the Obi-Wan movie, he will bring a considerable amount of prestige to the project, which is fitting since Sir Alec Guinness received an Oscar nomination for his role as Obi-Wan in A New Hope.
Speaking of actors, it’s not clear who will play the Jedi in the new film. Guinness died in 2000 at the age of 86, and it seems unlikely that the studio will pull a Tarkin and resurrect him digitally given his reported distaste for the franchise while he was alive. Also potentially in the running is Ewan McGregor, who played the younger version of Obi-Wan in the Star Wars prequels. McGregor, now 46, has expressed interest in reprising his role, but it remains to be seen how willing Disney is to revisit the loathed prequel films. In case you hadn’t noticed, the Star Wars resurgence is all about calling back to the original trilogy and pretending as if the prequels never happened, and bringing back McGregor would be in direct opposition to this idea.
The report goes on to state that in addition to Obi-Wan, Disney is also looking at potential spinoffs featuring Yoda and Boba Fett — two more beloved characters from the original trilogy (note how there’s no talk of a Jar Jar Binks spinoff) — so it should be clear where the studio’s loyalties lie. No word yet on when we can expect the Obi-Wan movie, but given that Episode IX is set to premiere in 2019 and no Star Wars movie has yet been scheduled to follow it, we’re willing to bet that 2020 will be the year when the OG Jedi returns to theaters.
