Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi film trilogy was abandoned after Solo failure
Script was eventually reworked into the Disney Plus series
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Your support makes all the difference.Screenwriter Stuart Beattie has revealed that Disney had once been working on a trilogy of Star Wars films centring around Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan Kenobi.
However, the planned trilogy was abandoned after the underwhelming box office performance of the 2018 spin-off Solo: A Star Wars Story.
Beattie said he wrote a draft of the first Obi-Wan Kenobi film, which was eventually reworked into the Disney Plus series Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Speaking to The Direct, he revealed that he did not work directly on the series at all, though received several “story by” and writing credits.
“I wrote the film that they based the show on,” he said. “I spent like a year, year-and-a-half working on it. And then, when the decision was made not to make any more spin-off films after Solo came out, I left the project and went on to other things.
“Joby [Harold] came on and took my scripts and turned it from two hours into six. So, I did not work with them at all, I just got credit for the episodes because it was all my stuff.”
He also revealed details about the planned second and third Obi-Wan Kenobi films, claiming that he wanted to re-pitch his ideas for an as-yet-unconfirmed second season of Obi-Wan Kenobi.
“The second [movie] was thinking about where Kenobi ends up,” Beattie said. “And one of the most powerful and probably the most powerful moment in all of Obi-Wan’s story is that moment where he sacrifices himself in A New Hope.”
According to Beattie, the second film would see McGregor’s Jedi come to terms with his own mortality.
“It was Solo that changed the direction of the system,” he added. “I like Solo, personally, but it hadn’t made a lot of money… it certainly crushed us. Devastated, absolutely devastated.
“But, that’s the business, you know, highs and lows. I’m glad it got made. I’m glad the show got made. I’m proud of my story that [got] told. I’m glad my characters are all through it. And I’m glad I got credit for it. I wish, I wish they’d been able to make my movies.”
Obi-Wan Kenobi is available to stream on Disney+ now.
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