Disney confirm release date for ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’
Ewan McGregor will return as the legendary Jedi Master later this year
By Joe Goggins
Disney have set a release date for their next Star Wars series.
With ‘The Book of Boba Fett’ having wrapped up this week on Disney+, a date has now been announced for ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’, which will see Ewan McGregor reprise the iconic role he first stepped into for the prequel trilogy.
The series will debut exclusively on the streaming platform on May 25. It becomes Disney+’s third original show within the Star Wars universe, following on from ‘The Book of Boba Fett’ and ‘The Mandalorian’. It will be set ten years after the events of McGregor’s last outing as the much-loved Jedi Master, which was in the final instalment in the prequel trilogy, ‘Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith’.
The conclusion of that film saw Kenobi leave his former Padawan turned Sith Lord, Anakin Skywalker, for dead. Intriguingly, Hayden Christensen – who portrayed Skywalker in ‘Revenge of the Sith’ and the previous movie, ‘Attack of the Clones’ – will appear in ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’, offering fans a glimpse at Skywalker’s early years as Darth Vader. Also confirmed to star in the series are Moses Ingram, Joel Edgerton, Bonnie Piesse, Kumail Nanjiani, Indira Varma, Rupert Friend, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Sung Kang, Simone Kessell and Benny Safdie.
A third season of ‘The Mandalorian’, which has been warmly received by fans and critics alike, is in production, while another new series – a spin-off from ‘The Mandalorian’ starring Rosario Dawson as the eponymous ‘Ahsoka’ – is also in the pipeline, currently in the casting stages. 2022 will also see the premiere of ‘Andor’, a series centred around Diego Luna’s character from 2016’s ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’, which will see the Spanish actor revisit the role.
The slew of new Star Wars series reaffirms Disney’s commitment to the multi-billion-dollar franchise, as it continues to work out its next move in terms of its cinematic future. Producer Kathleen Kennedy confirmed in 2019 that the studio would take a break from ‘Star Wars’ movies after ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’, chronicling the early years of Harrison Ford’s legendary smuggler, disappointed at the box office.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter last year, McGregor discussed the dusting off of his lightsaber. “I’m really excited about it,” he said. “Maybe more so than the [Episode I-III films], because I’m older — I just turned 50 — and I’m just in a much better place.”