While fans of the space opera
epic “Star Wars” were originally skeptic of the “Star Wars Story” non-episode
anthology films beginning with 2016’s “Rogue One,” they were intrigued at the
possibility of using that movie sub-series to tell side-stories about
established franchise characters outside the “Skywalker Saga” episodic films.
This sentiment was reinforced with the initial announcement of “Solo” for 2018,
but its failure and the scrapping of the anthology meant fan dreams of an “Obi-Wan:
A Star Wars Story” movie were dashed. Hope was revived when Lucasfilm announced
retooling the concept into a streaming series for Disney+, but recent news is
not being hopeful.
Gamespot has it that there seem to be some development troubles
with Lucasfilm for an “Obi-Wan Kenobi” series on the Disney+ streaming
platform. While earlier reports would assure that the project has not actually
been scrapped, fans of “Star Wars” in general and of the wise and powerful Jedi
Master might be waiting very long for the planned show to debut. Word is that
the pre-production posse at Pinewood Studios in the UK has already been given
leave with Lucasfilm President and slated “Obi-Wan” producer Kathleen Kennedy
intimating that the series is on “indefinite” hold.
Details from the latest report is
that only two scripts of the proposed series have been finished, but that
Kennedy had found them unsatisfactory. Had this development not happened, then
further production work might have started in summer of this year. For now the
focus is on trying to rework the existing scripts to see if the timetable can
still be met, but if the “timeframe could shift” with further delays, then it
would be better to err on the side of caution and just say “Obi-Wan” is
indefinitely postponed.
This is disappointing especially
for “Star Wars” aficionados who like the portrayal of Obi-Wan Kenobi from the
prequel trilogy as played by Ewan McGregor, who has been cast to reprise the
role. The general plot, to be told in six episodes, would see Obi-Wan’s other
adventures between “Revenge of the Sith” and “A New Hope,” the same storyline boundary
between prequel and original films wherein “Star Wars Rebels” takes place.
Inside sources report that the reason for the completed “Obi-Wan” being redone
was because they were treading too similarly to Jon Favreau’s own
already-streaming production “The Mandalorian,” and as a result of the
rewriting the episode count was cut down from six to just four.
It has been pointed out that
several Disney-Lucasfilm “Star Wars” have had similarly cloudy production histories.
The “Rogue One” and “Solo” movies were similarly retooled, with the latter
having a mid-filming directorial switch, similar to “The Rise of Skywalker,”
only this occurred before filming began.
0 comments:
Post a Comment