With so much focus on ramping up for The Mandalorian season 2, other Star Wars Disney+ series have somewhat fallen by the wayside. One of these series is the Obi-Wan Kenobi series, which has only had a handful of new details release as of late.
Obi-Wan Kenobi star Ewan McGregor has previously discussed the series, stating that it will indeed be a limited series with one season. He also voiced his excitement for the show, saying that he was more excited for Obi-Wan Kenobi than he was for doing Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.
The show is currently rumored to have heavy ties to other prequel characters though, with Anakin Skywalker and Commander Cody supposedly set to appera in the series. Other rumors suggested that the series would enter production last month, though there has been little to suggest that this was actually the case.
McGregor himself has now spoken about the series, providing some insight as to when filming may actually begin...
NEWS
Found by Reddit user u/BetweenTwoLungs12345, Ewan McGregor appeared on The Graham Norton Show to discuss his return as Obi-Wan Kenobi. The actor even dropped a nugget of new information, saying that the series is set to start filming "in March of next year."
In addition to this, in response to Norton saying the series would be "all you," McGregor took a moment to think and responded by saying:
Well, it's not all me, but it's certainly a lot of me, which is good!
McGregor also touched on Alec Guinness' influence on how he portrays the character, after jokingly being told that he is catching up to how Guiness looked in the original trilogy:
The fun thing about doing them in the first place, when I was much younger, was trying to imagine Alec Guiness -- how would he play these scenes as a younger guy. And it led me to watch a lot of his early work, which I hadn't seen before. Brilliant movies, wonderful films that he'd been in...and I just had such a great time sort of studying him in those movies.
There was a great film called The Card, that I'd never seen, about a ragged old man who ends up being a sort of mayor of a town or something. So as you say Frank, I'm much closer in age to him and it will be my challenge to try and sort of meet him somewhere.
I love Alec Guiness, I never got to meet him, but I love him through his work and it's a great honor to sort of try and pretend to be him.
You can watch the clip below:
WHAT THIS MEANS
Ewan McGregor confirms here that the series is set to start shooting in March 2021. Whether this will still hold true when taking into account filming restrictions remains to be seen, but this production move is likely to accommodate for the script retooling that was reported on earlier this year. This has likely altered the trajectory for the series, so will need more time to get everything prepared in pre-production for the series to move forward into filming next year.
While McGregor's comment about the show being "not all [him]" may seem like a throwaway comment, this could be taken as an indication of other focuses in the series. Previous rumors of other fan-favorite characters, like Anakin and Commander Cody, making appearances could very well round out an Obi-Wan Kenobi show. Therefore, McGregor may be giving a subtle hint of big things to come outside of the Kenobi character.
It will also be interesting to see how McGregor plays Obi-Wan in the series. As noted by McGregor himself, he will almost have to morph into Guiness' portrayal of the character as the series progresses. Therefore, the series should follow Kenobi's transformation from the youthful Jedi Master in the prequels to the sagely, wise hermit seen in A New Hope.
The Obi-Wan Kenobi series is currently set to release on Disney+ in 2022.
