Obi-Wan Kenobi: A Star Wars Story Confirmed

On Thursday, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed longstanding rumors that Lucasfilm will make a new Star Wars anthology film centered on Obi-Wan Kenobi. Steven Daldry, the Oscar-nominated director behind Billy Elliot, The Hours and Netflix period drama The Crown, is in preliminary talks to direct the film.

THR reports “talks are at the earliest of stages and that the project has no script. If a deal makes, Daldry would oversee the development and writing with Lucasfilm brass. It's not known at this stage if Ewan McGregor will reprise his role.“

Rumors of a Star Wars standalone film featuring Obi-Wan have circulated since the Star Wars Story concept launched with Rogue One. Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy sparked further speculation back in May, telling Vanity Fair the team was debating between two projects to follow the (still, troublingly) untitled Han Solo movie.

“We haven’t identified it yet, but yes. We have a couple of things right now that we’re circling, and we’ll make a decision between the two pretty shortly. It’s probably for 2020, and we will make a decision by June,” said Kennedy.

Sir Alec Guinness played Obi-Wan in the original Star Wars trilogy, and McGregor played a younger version in the prequel trilogy. Fans of McGregor’s take on the iconic character have reason to be optimistic he’ll return to the role.

“There’s no official offer, and I haven’t met them about it or anything,” McGregor told Entertainment Weekly back in April. “But I’ve always said that I’d be happy to do it if they wanted to do it. It would be a good segue between the last episode of the prequels and the new episodes. I think they’ve got films to make until the 2020s, so I don’t think it’s going to happen soon if it happens at all.”

As we wrote back in May, a standalone film focusing on Obi-Wan could offer some interesting possibilities for connecting all nine saga movies. It could give fans new insights about the relationships between the Skywalkers, Solos and Kenobis. After all, we still don’t know what brought Obi-Wan to Tatooine, why he adopted the moniker of Ben Kenobi, or what inspired Han and Leia to name their son after him.

Episode IX has been slated for a summer 2019 debut, but Lucasfilm recently brought on another writer , Jack Thorne, to rework the script penned by director Colin Trevorrow and writing partner Derek Connolly. With filming for the final installment in the sequel trilogy set to begin in January 2018, it’s possible the Episode IX release date could be pushed back a few months as the team irons out the script. An Obi-Wan movie might be just the thing to fill the gap.

Are you excited by the prospect of McGregor playing Obi-Wan again? Do you agree with our passionate belief that the film should be called The High Ground or From A Certain Point of View, regardless of the storyline? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.