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Star Wars Anthology movies still on track at Disney with Obi-Wan’s future… difficult to see?

June 25th, 2018 by Marc Comments

You may recall a few days ago we reported that the rumour mill was saying that, scared by the low-performance of Solo: A Star Wars, Lucasfilm/Disney were putting all their in-development anthology movies (Obi-Wan Kenobi and Boba Fett according to sources) on hold until they worked out their place in the galaxy (here).

However, much to our relief (we loved Rogue One and Solo), it seems that this is not the case at all.

“They haven’t slowed down development,” says a source with knowledge of Lucasfilm’s thinking, “but they are licking their wounds.”

With another insider saying: “It doesn’t mean those spinoffs don’t happen, it just means they’re trying to figure out how to make, and market, them differently.”

Rumour is that, since Han Solo didn’t deliver the goods financially, a Boba Fett movie would be an even harder sell, so the Fett movie – being developed by Logan’s Simon Kinberg and James Mangold – would be scaled waaaaay down.

However, the Obi-Wan Kenobi movie seems to also be in a state of flux now too with the rumoured director, Billy Elliot’s Stephen Daldry, now likely off the movie altogether. But, we’ll have more news on Obi-Wan in a minute.

Anyway…

Word is that a Disney exec said of the plans for Star Wars: “They were developing anything and everything. It was a case of them stuffing so much sausage and not try to break the casing.”

So that’s being pulled in a bit for a start.

However, it looks like the idea of a Solo sequel is definitely dead at this point, meaning they will need to find another way to continue the story they set up at the end of the first movie – one which has us very excited with Q’ira joining Darth Maul (!!!!!) in an underworld criminal organisation and with definite groundwork laid for other characters such as Lando Calrissian.

Although, we always figured that story could be in the background of the other anthology movies.

All that said, Star Wars is still in a very forward-moving state with Episode IX in production, Game of Thrones TV show creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss working on a new movie series, Rian Johnson’s new trilogy movie ahead, not to mention a new animated series and a live action series both moving into production.

“In light of the reaction to Last Jedi and the performance of Solo, they are now just going to look at what’s coming in and seeing how good it is, before dating anything,” says one insider. “It’s all pretty understandable.”

True words, indeed, however, it seems there is more going on with the Kenobi situation than we’re aware of.

Ever since the final credits rolled on Star Wars Epiode III: Revenge of the Sith, the fans have been crying out for a Kenobi movie… Ewan McGregor nailed it as Kenobi and we all wanted to know what exactly he had been at int he years between Sith and A New Hope.

And it seems Disney are definitely looking to do something with the character and, hopefully, a returning McGregor.

But not necessarily in the ways we thought… new reports suggest McGregor will be filming scenes for Episode IX!

Wut?

Yes it seems that Obi-Wan Kenobi may be set for a Force Ghost appearance – like Yoda in The Last Jedi – in the next instalment.

You may recall we pondered this last December (here), so the idea is certainly not totally unexpected.

It has been reported that he will be shooting scenes in Los Angeles for Episode IX: “When it comes down to it, it’s all about getting the character right. Obi-Wan is a fan favorite and people really want him to come back in full force, preferably in his own film, but I think they can settle for a role in Episode IX.” says a source close to Disney.

But wait… The Playlist are reporting that they are hearing that Disney are keen to get a big show on their upcoming streaming service, with that show possibly being an Obi-Wan series (starring McGregor?!); this actually makes sense and could be an awesome way to explore the universe between the prequels and the original trilogy and, with the character treated properly, it could be a great addition to the Star Wars mythos.

Finally, we’re also hearing that Lucasfilm had a Mos Eisley movie – possibly titled Star Wars Underworld (which you may recall was the title of the cancelled Star Wars live-action series pre-Disney) – which is now in limbo too following the whole Solo debacle. This could have been a great way to connect to Solo given that at the end of the movie he was heading to meet Jabba for the first time, it would also have tied nicely into the Boba Fett movie and been a great way to continue the Maul story set up at the end of Solo.

It looks like Disney haven’t got the structure for Star Wars that they have with Marvel, but if they find their groove, this is a universe that could be properly explored.

What say you all?

Source: THR and The Sun

Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….