Last week we heard murmurs that, after what has been years of umming and aahing, Ewan McGregor had finally signed a deal to return to the Star Wars galaxy as the legendary Jedi Master, Obi-Wan Kenobi. Now, Disney’s just made it official.
Announced by the company today during its ongoing D23 Expo in Anaheim, California, the new series will launch on the media megacorporation’s upcoming Disney+ streaming service, set to launch in Australia on November 19 (with the debut of another TV series set in the Star Wars universe, Jon Favreau’s The Mandalorian).
We will see McGregor reprise his turn as the younger Obi-Wan Kenobi, the role he played throughout the three Star Wars prequel movies. Disney said it would start filming next year.
The currently-untitled series — which joins the aforementioned Mandalorian and yet another series that follows Diego Luna’s Rogue One character, Rebel spy Cassian Andor, as part of Lucasfilm’s slate of programming for Disney+ — will follow Kenobi eight years after the events of Revenge of the Sith saw the Jedi purged by the fallen Anakin Skywalker and Sheev Palpatine.
Set approximately around the time Solo: A Star Wars Story is set, the show will follow Obi-Wan in exile on the planet Tatooine to watch over the hidden son of Anakin and his wife Padmé, Luke.
[referenced url=”https://gizmodo.com.au/2019/08/apropos-of-nothing-at-all-heres-some-pictures-of-a-sweet-new-ewan-mcgregor-obi-wan-kenobi-figure/” thumb=”https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/t_ku-large/n5pxfxukh6om6nckrceu.png” title=”Apropos Of Nothing At All, Here’s Some Pictures Of A Sweet New Ewan McGregor Obi-Wan Kenobi Figure” excerpt=”Not like anyone’s talking about Ewan McGregor and Obi-Wan Kenobi all of a sudden. Right?”]
It’s been a long road for what has been floating around as a rumour since early 2014. McGregor himself has danced around a Star Wars return repeatedly, as rumours grew from a standalone movie in the vein of Rogue One or Solo, to a trilogy of movies, to even getting a director, Billy Elliot’s Stephen Daldry, allegedly on board — and at one point, murmurs of its cancellation all together alongside other potential movie spinoffs.
Now the movie might be no more, but at least the idea lives on: Perhaps more powerfully than we could possibly imagine.
We’ll bring you more details on the Obi-Wan series as we learn them.
[referenced url=”https://gizmodo.com.au/2019/08/in-the-first-mandalorian-trailer-a-lone-ranger-survives-on-a-galaxys-edge/” thumb=”https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/t_ku-large/ooz3tlqq1mqtrpdp5dca.png” title=”In The First Mandalorian Trailer, A Lone Ranger Survives On A Galaxy’s Edge” excerpt=”Live-action Star Wars is returning to TV with The Mandalorian, the first non-animated Star Wars TV project since the infamous Caravan of Courage. Now, we finally have a look of what to expect from Disney+ and Jon Favreau’s mysterious tale of a wanderer on the outer rim of the galaxy far, far away.”]