Lucasfilm’s “Obi-Wan Kenobi” series directed by Deborah Chow (“The Mandalorian”) brings back Scottish actor Ewan McGregor as the beloved Jedi alongside Hayden Christensen in the Darth Vader role reuniting the prequel co-stars. Others among the cast include Indira Varma, Kumail Nanjiani, Sung Kang, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Benny Safdie, Rupert Friend, Joel Edgerton as Uncle Owen, Moses Ingram, Bonnie Piesse as Aunt Beru, Maya Erskine, and Simone Kessell.
While speaking with Screen Rant to promote the upcoming home video release of “F9: The Fast Saga,” franchise actor Sung Kang has suggested (See video below) that he’s interacted with Darth Vader on the set of “Kenobi” and admits to his character wielding a lightsaber.
“To be on set and see Darth Vader and see the Star Wars universe in front of me, just as a fan to be part of that history is pretty amazing. I kept pinching myself saying ‘How did I get here?’ My character has a lightsaber and to go ‘It’s not a toy, it’s a real thing,'” Kang teased his Star Wars role to Screen Rant.
These comments would support a previous report from the reliable Cinelinx that Sung Kang would be playing a live-action incarnation of The Fifth Brother, a villain introduced in the animated series “Star Wars: Rebels.”
Actress Moses Ingram had teased on Instagram that she would also be using a lightsaber on the show using the caption: “I play with lightsabers.”
Giving fans live-action versions of the Jedi-hunting Inquisitors would certainly add an exciting action element to the streaming series.
The story begins 10 years after the dramatic events of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith where Kenobi faced his greatest defeat, the downfall and corruption of his best friend and Jedi apprentice, Anakin Skywalker turned evil Sith Lord Darth Vader.
We’ll likely get a better idea of when “Obi-Wan Kenobi” will begin airing from the upcoming Disney+ Day event in November.
"I kept pinching myself going, 'How did I end up here?' and, my character has a lightsaber!" Sung Kang on heading to a galaxy far, far away in the upcoming #ObiWan series. pic.twitter.com/SmzEBGx3Pf
When Marvel’s Loki series moved from the traditional Fridays to Wednesdays, it felt like a shift in how Disney+ would be dropping original programming as Fridays had been traditionally meant for their big Star Wars and Marvel shows.
However, Deadline is reporting that the streaming is planning to keep original shows for Wednesdays as Fridays will be for original films. The news seems to stem from a new press release of show release dates.
Going forward, the streamer will drop all of its originals on Wednesdays. This will include all original scripted, unscripted and animated series. ..Disney+ Original Movies will continue to premiere on Fridays.
I have to assume this will include Premier Access films are continuing to stick with Fridays such as Marvel’s Black Widow and other projects that will be heading to that added pay service in the future. I’m slightly curious if this means they’ll be aiming to release a greater number of original films weekly and could suggest some stuff that was meant for the big screen could be tossed on Disney+ instead, like the last two Pixar films, Soul and Luca.
Upcoming Disney+ original series coming in the not too distant future include Willow, What…If?, Ms. Marvel, The Book of Boba Fett, Hawkeye, She-Hulk, Moon Knight, Andor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Secret Invasion, Armor Wars, The Guardians of The Galaxy Holiday Special, Ironheart, Echo, and much much more.
Production is underway on the Obi-Wan Kenobi show in California but it sounds like we might not see the return of Liam Neeson’s Qui-Gon Jinn despite The Phantom Menace star’s previous interest in reprising the Jedi Knight, even as just a force ghost.
The Irish actor appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! to promote his upcoming action film The Ice Road and was directly asked about appearing in the Star Wars series.
Liam Neeson responding with the following statement after being asked if he would show up, “I heard Ewan McGregor was gonna do a series. No, I don’t think so. No, I haven’t been approached.”
The story begins 10 years after the dramatic events of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith where Kenobi faced his greatest defeat, the downfall and corruption of his best friend and Jedi apprentice, Anakin Skywalker turned evil Sith Lord Darth Vader.
Thinking Neeson would return isn’t coming out of the blue, as fallen Jedi have been known to return as force ghosts and Star Wars: Revenge of The Sith directly mentioned that Qui-Gon Jinn had learned this ability to communicate from beyond the grave before he was killed at the hands of Darth Maul in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.
The cast already consists of Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi aka Ben Kenobi, Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader, Indira Varma, Kumail Nanjiani, Sung Kang, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Benny Safdie, Rupert Friend, Joel Edgerton as Uncle Owen, Moses Ingram, Bonnie Piesse as Aunt Beru, Maya Erskine, and Simone Kessell.
The inclusion of Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru has all but confirmed we’ll see a young version of Luke Skywalker.
Deborah Chow (The Mandalorian) is directing with Joby Harold (Army of The Dead) acting as the showrunner.
There is an expectation that Obi-Wan Kenobi will debut on Disney+ sometime in 2022 and has seen it’s episode count bumped to six.
As today is Star Wars day, May The 4th, I decided to rundown all the upcoming live-action projects in the works over at Lucasfilm and what we know about them.
THE BOOK OF BOBA FETT: Originally confused with the third season of The Mandalorian, the Boba Fett series will continue the adventures of Temuera Morrison’s Fett and Ming-Na Wen’s wonderful Fennec Shand. In a post-credit scene in Season 2 of The Mandalorian, the pair return to Tatooine and assassinate Bib Fortuna at Jabba’s Palace. It’s unknown officially if we’ll see Boba take a kingpin role within the criminal underworld or will be slightly more heroic.
A Boba Fett movie had been in the works with Simon Kinberg and Josh Trank, but the studio ultimately killed it and instead decided to make The Mandalorian allowing them to insert Boba Fett in the second season because of where the shows take place in the timeline.
At one time, Guillermo del Toro pitched a gangster project to Yahoo! during an interview featuring Jabba that was described as a Godfather saga in the Star Wars universe.
DEL TORO: “I would do the sort of Godfather saga that Jabba the Hutt had to go through to gain control. One, because it’s the character that looks the most like me, and I like him. I love the idea of a Hutt type of mafia, a very complex coup. I just love the character.”
It’s possible The Book of Boba Fett could end up being a revised version of that idea and we could see more of the criminal elements as The Mandalorian sort of abandoned low-level criminal threats when Grogu came into the picture and Imperial baddies became more the focus.
Producing will be Robert Rodriguez, Jon Favreau, and Dave Filoni. They secured Emmy-winning production designer Andrew Jones (The Mandalorian) with filming taking place in California giving them access to The Volume/StageCraft. We are hearing the producing team will also act as directors on the series as well with at least 7-episodes.
It’s seemingly set to debut on Disney+ in December.
ANDOR: A prequel to Rogue One: A Story Wars Story, the project will focus on Diego Luna’s Rebellion spy character Cassian Andor. Production had been taking place in the United Kingdom with Toby Haynes (Sherlock, Doctor Who, Utopia, Black Mirror) taking on directing duties from Tony Gilroy after the pandemic made things difficult, who was also working on scripts. Gilroy famously was brought-on to write and direct extensive reshoots on Rogue One.
Joining Diego Luna will be Adria Arjona (Morbius), Denise Gough, Genevieve O’Reilly as Mon Mothma, Stellan Skarsgard (Thor, Dune, Girl With The Dragon Tattoo), Fiona Shaw, and Kyle Soller. However, it sounds like K-2SO won’t be appearing in the first season according to actor Alan Tudyk giving the impression that we’ll be getting a Season 2 of Andor. This was a little puzzling as he was announced as being a cast member originally alongside Luna and would suggest that his role was scaled-back in rewrites.
It’s supposed to debut on Disney+ in 2022.
OBI-WAN KENOBI: Like Boba Fett, Lucasfilm had been trying to develop a Kenobi feature film that was abandoned for a 6-episode series on Disney+ instead. The Mandalorian’s Deborah Chow is directing with a crew such as cinematographer and production designer Todd Cherniawsky (Avatar, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Star Trek: Picard).
The story begins 10 years after the dramatic events of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith where Kenobi faced his greatest defeat, the downfall and corruption of his best friend and Jedi apprentice, Anakin Skywalker turned evil Sith Lord Darth Vader.
We’ll see at least four prequel actors return with Ewan McGregor as Ben Kenobi, Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader, Joel Edgerton as Uncle Owen, and Bonnie Piesse as Aunt Beru. The show’s new additions are Indira Varma (Game of Thrones), Kumail Nanjiani (Eternals), Sung Kang (F9, Tokyo Drift), O’Shea Jackson Jr. (Godzilla: King of The Monsters), Benny Safdie (Good Time), Rupert Friend, Moses Ingram, and Simone Kessell.
While Obi-Wan is known as spending most of the time between Star Wars: Revenge of The Sith and Star Wars: A New Hope wondering Tatooine as a hermit, it sounds like the series will be a little more exciting than that and we’ll see other locations. Ewan McGregor has teased extensive training for lightsaber battles which would expose himself as a Jedi Knight if he did this publicly on Tatooine and also hinted Kenobi could be going off-world.
MCGREGOR: “There’s a hunger for this character to come back. The fans have been waiting long enough, you know? We start on Tatooine, and we go on a rollicking adventure.”
We’re expecting that a young Luke Skywalker will appear in the show given the era and that his Uncle/Aunt are confirmed.
The return of Darth Vader could mean we’ll see more action sequences with the baddie or Kenobi having to tangle with Inquisitors as it could explain the training McGregor has been undergoing, unless we’ll see flashbacks to battles during the Clone Wars. In Rogue One, one of the big highlights was seeing Darth Vader unleashed against a group of Rebels and the series could give Lucasfilm an excuse to shoot another action sequences with the Sith villain.
It’s not confirmed if Liam Neeson’s Qui-Gon Jinn will show up in some capacity, but Liam has revealed he would be open to return for the Disney+ series. However, the rumor of Jar Jar Binks making a return was debunked by actor Ahmed Best on Twitter.
THE MANDALORIAN – SEASON 3: The finale of Season 2 ended with uncanny valley Luke Skywalker saving the group from the Dark Trooper droids and agreed to train Grogu. We also see Din Djarin beat Moff Gideon in a duel earning the Darksaber making him the new leader of Mandalore which should develop into some conflict with Bo-Katan.
Lead actor Pedro Pascal will be busy over the summer as he’ll be playing Joel in HBO’s series adaptation of the Naughty Dog video game The Last of Us, which will be filming in Calgary, Alberta, Canada making things a little complicated if he’ll be needed on set of The Mandalorian.
I wouldn’t be shocked if the show won’t return on Disney+ until late 2022 as The Book of Boba Fett seemingly took it’s production schedule last fall.
AHSOKA: A spinoff of The Mandalorian, as revealed in Ahsoka Tano’s episode the former Jedi is searching for Grand Admiral Thrawn. While there has been plenty of fan speculation that other characters from the animation side will appear in the show that has yet to be confirmed.
After making her long awaited live-action debut in The Mandalorian, Ahsoka Tano’s story, written by Dave Filoni, will continue in a limited series starring Rosario Dawson and executive produced by Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau.
RANGERS OF THE NEW REPUBLIC: Like Ahsoka, the project takes place within the same timeline of The Mandalorian and will likely feature a handful of characters we’ve already been introduced to. Cara Dune would have been shoe-in before Lucasfilm fired Gina Carano, but we don’t know if they’ll recast the role or pivot to a new character instead.
Set within the timeline of The Mandalorian, this new live-action series from executive producers Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni will intersect with future stories and culminate into a climactic story event.
I have to imagine that Bill Burr’s sharpshooter Migs Mayfeld and Paul Sun-Hyung Lee’s Captain Carson Teva could be part of the show’s lineup. Paul’s CBC comedy series Kim’s Convenience recently ended allowing him to commit to other shows like Rangers of The New Republic.
THE ACOLYTE: The Disney+ series from Russian Doll’s Leslye Headland is said to be taking place during The High Republic, the new era of Star Wars that will be explored heavily in new publications of both novels and comic books.
The Acolyte is a mystery-thriller that will take the audience into a galaxy of shadowy secrets and emerging dark side powers in the final days of the High Republic era.
LANDO: Referred to as an “event series” suggesting it will be a one-off like Obi-Wan Kenobi, Lando will be developed and written by Dear White People’s Justin Simien. Justin had recently been hired to direct Disney’s new Haunted Mansion movie based on the theme park ride and it’s unclear if they’ve signed-on Donald Glover to reprise the role as he’s got a bunch of projects in the works thanks to his deal with Amazon, including a Mr. & Mrs. Smith series with Solo: A Star Wars Story co-star Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
ROGUE SQUADRON: In December, it was officially announced that the next big movie, Rogue Squadron, is set to be released on December 2023 and will be directed by Patty Jenkins (Wonder Woman, Monster). Jenkins will be the first female director to helm a Star Wars film.
The next Star Wars feature film will be Rogue Squadron — directed by Patty Jenkins (Wonder Woman franchise). The story will introduce a new generation of starfighter pilots as they earn their wings and risk their lives in a boundary-pushing, high-speed thrill-ride, and move the saga into the future era of the galaxy.
JENKINS: “[In the Star Wars: Rogue Squadron movie] we’re doing something original with great influence from the games and the books. There’s a lot of things being acknowledged and understood about the greatness of all of those things, but yes, it’s an original story and I’m so psyched to do it.”
Other feature films in the works include one from director Taika Watiti (Thor: Love & Thunder, Jojo Rabbit, Thor: Rangrok) that seemingly lost co-writer Krysty Wilson-Cairns (1917, Last Night In Soho) as her name was missing from Lucasfilm’s press release from December.
Rian Johnson continues to state in interviews that his original Star Wars trilogy is happening even though he recently signed-on to direct two Knives Out sequels for Netflix and is working with Natasha Lyonne on a new mystery series called Poker Face for Peacock.
Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige is also said to be producing his own feature with Michael Waldron (Rick & Morty, Loki, Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness) writing it.
In 2020, it was revelaed by The Hollywood Reporter that J.D. Dillard (Devotion, Sleight) and Matt Owens (Luke Cage, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) would be co-writing a movie, but we haven’t any real updates on the project. Dillard is currently shooting the Korean War pic Devotion starring Jonathan Majors and Glen Powell. He was also in talks to direct a remake of The Fly.
Lastly, an unconfirmed report from BuzzFeed claimed that the studio tasked screenwriter Laeta Kalogridis (Altered Carbon, Shutter Island, Avatar, Ghost In The Shell, Alita: Battle Angel) to pen an adaptation of Knights of The Old Republic (a potential “trilogy”) and studio head Kathleen Kennedy confirmed to MTV News it’s an era they’ve been talking about exploring internally. I’m curious with the talk of video game remake in the works if they’ll attempt to expand upon The Old Republic in a similar manner as they are with The High Republic.
The Obi-Wan Kenobi series has had a long journey originally designed to be a feature film similar to Rogue One and Solo until Lucasfilm pumped the breaks then pivoted to a series that would be directed by Deborah Chow. Ewan McGregor was officially confirmed to return to the Kenobi role alongside other prequel actors including Hayden Christensen playing Darth Vader.
The story begins 10 years after the dramatic events of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith where Kenobi faced his greatest defeat, the downfall and corruption of his best friend and Jedi apprentice, Anakin Skywalker turned evil Sith Lord Darth Vader.
Indira Varma, Kumail Nanjiani, Sung Kang, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Benny Safdie, Rupert Friend, Joel Edgerton, Moses Ingram, Bonnie Piesse, and Simone Kessell. Joel and Bonnie reprising their prequel roles of Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru. A huge sign we’ll be seeing a young Luke Skywalker after the character returned for Star Wars: The Last Jedi and The Mandalorian Season 2 finale.
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Ewan McGregor says that photography hasn’t started but has been doing screen tests with other actors, and teased it could be for young Luke Skywalker.
While principal photography has not yet commenced, McGregor says he “has done some screen tests with Deborah and other people, and I can see that she is a really, really good director.” Might some of those screen tests be with a young Luke Skywalker? He flashes that famous Ewan McGregor grin. “That’s very possible,” he says. “I don’t know.”
He also hinted that he’s been training hard for future lightsaber battles in the show after previous teases that we’ll see the series tackle other locations other than Tatooine. Suggesting we might not being seeing the boring hermit wondering the desert for the entire run of Obi-Wan Kenobi.
MCGREGOR: “For months, we’ve been doing these monster, two-and-a-half-hour sessions of sword fights and hand-to-hand stuff.”
Kenobi will have 6-episodes and debut on Disney+ sometime in 2022.
As production is said to be begin this month in Los Angeles, the Obi-Wan Kenobi series will reportedly add actress Maya Erskine to the cast. This news comes from Deadline, who add that the show’s episode count has moved-up from four to six.
The story begins 10 years after the dramatic events of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith where Kenobi faced his greatest defeat, the downfall and corruption of his best friend and Jedi apprentice, Anakin Skywalker turned evil Sith Lord Darth Vader.
The cast already consists of Ewan McGregor, Hayden Christensen, Indira Varma, Kumail Nanjiani, Sung Kang, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Benny Safdie, Rupert Friend, Joel Edgerton, Moses Ingram, Bonnie Piesse, and Simone Kessell.
Deborah Chow (The Mandalorian) is directing the Star Wars series.
There is an expectation that Obi-Wan Kenobi will debut on Disney+ sometime in 2022.
Erin Kellyman is having quite the career thanks to Disney as the British actress has appeared in Solo: A Star Wars Story as Enfys Nest, is currently seen playing Karli Morgenthau on Marvel’s The Falcon & The Winter Soldier, and has a lead role in the Willow sequel series at Disney+ that is filming in Wales.
The young actress is doing some press for The Falcon & The Winter Soldier when she was asked by Screen Rant about the possibility of reprising the role of Enfys Nest in a future Star Wars project. In her response, admitting she hasn’t spoken to the studio about it but would be willing to play her again.
KELLYMAN: “I would love if that was the case. I haven’t heard anything, but I would love to play Enfys Nest again. If Disney came to me and said, ‘Will you play her again?’ I would 100% do it. She was such a fun character to play.”
While the Obi-Wan Kenobi limited series takes place around the events of Solo: A Star Wars Story (follows Han Solo over multiple years), her other commitments to Willow would likely prevent her from appearing even if that was an option. However, depending when the upcoming Lando series is set within the Star Wars timeline, it could allow Kellyman to at least cameo as Nest down the road.
A much older version of the character could appear in The Mandalorian era shows on Disney+, but would likely mean they’d have to hire an older actress or keep Nest in the helmet.
We’ll have to wait and see if Lucasfilm ultimately has her return to the Star Wars universe.
Today, Lucasfilm has announced a batch of new additions to the cast of Obi-Wan Kenobi with Kumail Nanjiani, Sung Kang, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Benny Safdie, Rupert Friend, Joel Edgerton, Moses Ingram, Bonnie Piesse, and Simone Kessell. They’ll join the previously announced cast of Ewan McGregor, Hayden Christensen, and Indira Varma.
The story begins 10 years after the dramatic events of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith where Kenobi faced his greatest defeat, the downfall and corruption of his best friend and Jedi apprentice, Anakin Skywalker turned evil Sith Lord Darth Vader.
Bonnie and Joel will be reprising their prequel roles of Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru, these casting announcements would confirm that the limited series will add a young Luke Skywalker. This makes perfect sense as the limited series is set 10 years after the events of Star Wars: Revenge of The Sith, also years before Star Wars: A New Hope and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
Ewan McGregor has sort of hinted that we could see Ben Kenobi off-world and it’s been officially announced that Hayden will be returning to the role of Darth Vader, so the series will likely have an Imperial angle.
Ewan has confirmed the filming will take place in Los Angeles sometime in spring with Deborah Chow (The Mandalorian) directing. The press release includes an update of an April production start.
The incredible cast includes Ewan McGregor, Hayden Christensen, Moses Ingram, Joel Edgerton, Bonnie Piesse, Kumail Nanjiani, Indira Varma, Rupert Friend, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Sung Kang, Simone Kessell and Benny Safdie. pic.twitter.com/VltHs5Aw6r
A report from Deadline posted yesterday revealed that British actress Indira Varma has taken an undisclosed role in the upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi series which already stars Ewan McGregor as Ben Kenobi and Hayden Christensen reprising the Darth Vader role.
Varma is likely best know for her supporting role in HBO shows such as Game of Thrones and Rome. However, the outlet isn’t sure who exactly she’ll be playing in Star Wars series that takes place many years before Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Star Wars: A New Hope as Luke Skywalker will still be a child during this era in the timeline.
Deborah Chow, who previously worked on Season 1 of The Mandalorian is directing the spinoff series focusing on the former Jedi Master/General and according to McGregor, Kenobi will begin shooting in Los Angeles around late spring.
Lucasfilm is busy as they’re currently filming The Book of Boba Fett and Andor with a Willow sequel series starting production in Wales this month as well. Other live-action Star Wars shows announced back in December include Season 3 of The Mandalorian, Rangers of The New Republic, Ahsoka, Lando, and The Acolyte. The studio has its hands full as Patty Jenkins will be directing the next feature film, titled Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, and has a release date of December 22nd, 2023.
The Book of Boba Fett is expected to be the next Disney+ series to release in the fall.
Despite rumblings that Lucasfilm has started shooting Obi-Wan Kenobi, the Disney+ series star Ewan McGregor while chatting with comedian Eddie Izzard for a charity streaming event revealed that production won’t be taking place until “late spring” and that the production location is actually going to be Los Angeles, California and not the United Kingdom as previously rumored.
The chat taking place during Izzard’s marathon Run For Hope and the clip with Ewan was posted on Reddit.
MCGREGOR: “We start making it in the late spring and we’re going to be shooting it here in [Los Angeles].”
He also took some grabs at the inaccurate tabloid reporting on the upcoming production and were it would be taking place stating it had always been planned for a shoot in California, not Boston or the United Kingdom.
My former website Omega Underground actually had talked about Obi-Wan Kenobi possibly shooting in California back in 2017, when the project was still being considered as a feature film at Lucasfilm and we pointed out the state being a strong contender for it’s production for a multitude of reasons.
A late spring shoot would suggest they might not begin until around May-June, given that most projects are being delayed due to COVID-19 seeing them push back from a March start wouldn’t be all that shocking. According to Deadline, The Book of Boba Fett is currently shooting in the California facility which might also have something to do with it.
There is also an interesting production crew report from a South Korean site Cine21 (spotted by Star Wars News Net) that Oldboy cinematographer Chung-hoon Chung has been tapped for the series, however, this has yet to be confirmed by Disney/Lucasfilm. His other credits include IT, The Handmaiden, Uncharted, and Edgar Wright’s Last Night In Soho.
What we do know is that Deborah Chow (The Mandalorian) is directing with Hayden Christensen officially singed-on to reprise the role of Darth Vader. We should also expected to start hearing casting news in the very near future as we get closer to the Star Wars show’s production start.
THE RONIN 
