Star Wars fans know that Obi-Wan Kenobi originally began life as a planned standalone movie and then a trilogy. How many ideas from that period made it into the eventual show, we can’t say. However, one fan has decided to take matters into his own hands and re-cut the entire series into a movie.
While Obi-Wan Kenobi was generally well received, one of the recurring complaints was that there seemed to be a lot of padding. If Disney did indeed stretch out what was planned as a movie into a six-episode season of television, that would make sense. However, Star Wars fan Kai Patterson has now gone viral after he edited the Disney+ series back into one two-hour-and-30-minute movie.
“The Obi-Wan show, in my opinion, suffered from things that were easily fixable in the script and in the edit,” Patterson writes on his website. “Awkward pacing, whole scenes that ultimately amounted to nothing, goofy dialogue, and directing choices, so I decided to take matters into my own hands and change what I could. I want to be very clear: this is my own artistic interpretation of how these scenes could be strung together to make something that works better for me personally.”
Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi started life as a movie
Speaking with The Direct, screenwriter Stuart Beattie gave some insight into the canceled Obi-Wan trilogy. “I wrote the film that they based the show on,” Beattie said. “I spent like a year, year-and-a-half working on it. And then, when the decision was made not to make any more spin-off films after ‘Solo’ came out, I left the project and went on to other things. Joby came on and took my scripts and turned it from two hours into six. So, I did not work with them at all; I just got credit for the episodes because it was all my stuff.”
The Obi-Wan trilogy was canceled after the disappointing box office returns for Solo: A Star Wars Story. However, Patterson has now resurrected this original vision, with fans able to experience something of what an Obi-Wan movie may have been like.
Patterson isn’t selling his version, initially making it available for streaming on his website. Lucasfilm has traditionally been very lenient with fan productions and edits. “e’re supporting all the original artists on this show by not letting this become a means of pirating,” Patterson said.
As of yesterday, Patterson said that he intends to take the movie cut offline, adding that he would only share it with “VIP guests upon request.” The movie is, however, still available on Patterson’s website.
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