Star Wars: Disney finds new writer for its stalled Obi-Wan Kenobi series

Disney+ had a huge hit with The Mandalorian, the first-ever live-action Star Wars series, and you can bet it’s not done. We’ve got a show about Cassian Andor from Rogue One on the way, a possible Mandalorian spinoff in the works, and a series all about what happened to Obi-Wan Kenobi after Revenge of the Sith but before A New Hope, with Ewan McGregor returning to the iconic role after playing Kenobi in the Star Wars prequel trilogy!

But there’s been some drama behind the scenes. Originally, Disney hired Hossein Amini to pen the scripts for the series, and shooting was set to go ahead this summer. But for whatever reason, things were stalled — and this was before the coronavirus came along and stalled everything everywhere. We don’t have all the details, but the word is that the scripts involved Obi-Wan protecting a young Luke Skywalker, which the higher-ups thought was a little too similar to what was going on in The Mandalorian, where the title character is looking after Baby Yoda. We don’t know that for sure, but it sounds plausible to me.

Anyway, Amini left the project, and shooting was pushed from summer of 2020 to January of 2021. “I think the scripts are great,” McGregor said back in January after the news first broke and people were panicking. “They’re in really good shape. They want them to be better. I think we keep our same air date. All good…[I]t’s not really as dramatic as it might seem.”

Whatever the reason for the change, Disney has now hired a new writer to work on the show, according to Variety: Joby Harold.

LOS ANGELES, CA – NOVEMBER 08: Joby Harold attends the 7th Annual Reel Stories, Real Lives event benefiting MPTF at Directors Guild Of America on November 8, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Tasia Wells/Getty Images for MPTF)

Harold is an interesting choice. He has two major movie writing credits to his name: the miserably reviewed 2007 thriller Awake (which featured Star Wars prequel leading man Hayden Christensen, interestingly enough), and the miserably reviewed King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, which came out in 2017. He’s had much better luck as an executive producer, working on bangers on Edge of Tomorrow and John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, which is the greatest movie ever made.

Anyway, if all goes according to plan, the show will start shooting early next year. And although it couldn’t have known it then, Disney probably would have had to push back the original shoot date anyway because of the pandemic, so maybe this will all equal out in the end.

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