Since Lucasfilm became part of the Disney family, the Star Wars movie franchise has expanded beyond the main saga entries to include Anthology spinoffs every other year. Rogue One kicked off this new endeavor last year, and the Han Solo movie will continue it next year. Now there's word that after years of rumors, Obi-Wan Kenobi will indeed be the subject of another spinoff, and director Stephen Daldry is reportedly being lined up to helm it.
It has long been speculated that the Star Wars franchise would revisit Obi-Wan Kenobi in one of its spinoffs, and now THR dropped the news that Stephen Daldry is in early talks to direct the movie. This Obi-Wan movie doesn't have a script yet, so if Daldry signs on, he would oversee the development of this project. It's unclear whether or not this movie would be the third Anthology movie scheduled for 2020, as Lucasfilm also looking at Star Wars movies centered on Yoda and Boba Fett, to name a few. It's also not clear yet if Ewan McGregor will reprise Obi-Wan after performing the Jedi in the Prequel Trilogy.
Stephen Daldry has been in a director in the world of theater for more than three decades, but he made his feature film debut in 2000 with Billy Elliot, later helming several stage productions of that movie in the years following. His other movie credits include The Hours, The Reader, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Trash and the upcoming Wicked adaptation, and he also directed episodes of Netflix's The Crown. Jumping into the world of Star Wars and overseeing a standalone story centered around one of the franchise's most popular characters would be a daunting task for anyone, but Daldry certainly has the potential to deliver audience a fresh and interesting take on one of the most prominent Jedi in the Star Wars mythos.
For most of the time that the Obi-Wan Kenobi movie has been rumored, Ewan McGregor has expressed interest in reprising the character, specifically for a story that follows the Jedi Master somewhere in the time between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, when he was looking after Luke Skywalker on Tatooine. While it's hard to imagine anyone else but McGregor playing Obi-Wan for this spinoff given that he's the right age to play the character in this period of Star Wars history, we can't rule out that Disney and Lucasfilm may decide to hire a new actor to don the Jedi robes. McGregor briefly reprised Obi-Wan for a voice cameo in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which also included archived audio from his predecessor, the late Alec Guiness. It was also rumored late last year that the reason the Obi-Wan movie hadn't moved sooner was because there are plans to use him in the remaining saga movies, i.e. The Last Jedi and/or Episode IX.
Keep checking back with CinemaBlend for more updates on the Obi-Wan Kenobi and the rest of the Star Wars franchise.
