Disney+'s upcoming live-action Star Wars television series centered around Obi-Wan Kenobi is slated to begin filming in March of 2021, star Ewan McGregor has confirmed.
"It's the Obi-Wan Kenobi story, I suppose," McGregor said while discussing the series during an appearance on The Graham Norton Show. "It's not all me, but it certainly will be a lot of me, which is good. We start shooting it in March next year."
Elsewhere in the interview, the 49-year-old McGregor -- who played a young Obi-Wan in the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy from 1999 to 2005 -- was asked if he felt the need to more closely resemble original Obi-Wan/Ben Kenobi actor Alec Guinness (who was 63 when the original Star Wars film hit theaters in 1977).
"Yes," McGregor replied. "The fun thing about doing them in the first place, when I was much younger, was trying to imagine Alec Guinness, 'How would he play these scenes as a younger guy?' It led me to watch a lot of his early work -- which I hadn't seen before -- brilliant movies, wonderful films that he'd been in... [This time] I'm much closer in age to him. And it will be my challenge to try and sort of meet him somewhere. I love Alec Guinness. I never got to meet him, but I love him through his work. And it's a great honor to sort of try and pretend to be him."
Set between the events of 2005's Revenge of the Sith and 1977's Star Wars, the upcoming Obi-Wan series will presumably follow the character on his transformation from Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi to mysterious hermit Ben Kenobi. (Notably, McGregor's return as Obi-Wan is something Star Wars fans have often called for.) The Mandalorian's Deborah Chow has been tapped to direct the series, with McGregor previously stating that it will consist of a single standalone season. However, the show has had a slightly bumpy road to production, having been put on indefinite hold back on January following writer Hossein Amini's departure. Things were put back on track in April when Joby Harold was brought on to pen new scripts.
Directed by Deborah Chow and starring Ewan McGregor, the Obi-Wan Kenobi series is currently in development for Disney+ and has yet to receive a premiere date or official title.
Source: YouTube\BBC