Six episodes of the “Obi-Wan Kenobi” Disney+ series are all that remains of a planned Star Wars movie trilogy.
After the success of 2016’s “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” Lucasfilm decided to give fans a Han Solo prequel story in “Solo: A Star Wars Story.” However, the movie failed to perform at the box office and, combined with 2019’s “The Rise of Skywalker,” many fans were disappointed in the direction Disney was taking the beloved franchise.
The live-action “The Mandalorian” Disney+ series reignited interest in the franchise, which is why it made sense that plans to make a movie trilogy for “Obi-Wan Kenobi” was scrapped and a Disney+ series was born in its place.
‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ Writer Says ‘Solo’ ‘Certainly Crushed Us’
In a recent interview with The Direct, Stuart Beattie, who worked on the “Obi-Wan Kenobi” movie draft and created the character of Reva, explained that “Solo” was the main reason why “Obi-Wan Kenobi” became a Disney+ series instead of appearing on the big screen.
“It was Solo that changed the direction of the system,” Beattie explained. “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,” he went on. He said that, ultimately, he’s “glad” that “Obi-Wan Kenobi” eventually got made, adding, “I’m proud of my story. I’m glad my characters are all through it. And I’m glad I got credit for it.” However, he confessed, “I wish they’d been able to make my movies.”
Apparently, “Solo,” which was riddled with production trouble, needed to make $500 million dollars at the box office just to break even. Instead, the film only made $393 million dollars worldwide.
Ewan McGregor Was Reportedly ‘On Board’ For An ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ Trilogy
Although Beattie made a two-hour movie script, they stretched it into a six-episode Disney+ series.
“I wrote the film that they based the show on,” Beattie explained. “I spent like a 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.”
Instead, writing Joby Harold was hired on to turn the movie script draft into a Disney+ series. Beattie admitted that he “did not work with them” at all, but he “got credit for the episodes because it was all my stuff.”
Beattie also noted that Ewan was “on board” to return for a movie trilogy, saying, “It’s a great story to tell, right? It’s such a fitting character and Ewan is just so fantastic at it. And he’s the perfect age, everything.”
He explained that the trilogy would have followed “three stories” followed “three different evolutions” and showed the character’s transformation from Obi-Wan Kenobi in the prequels to the character Luke Skywalker finally meets in “A New Hope.”
“The first one was the first movie, which was the show, which was, ‘Surrender to the will of the Force. Transport your will, surrender your will. Leave the kid alone,’” Beattle explained. He said that he wanted the second movie to focus on his sacrifice in the 1977 film, which Beattie described as “probably the most powerful moment in all of Obi-Wan’s story.”
He noted that Obi-Wan Kenobi makes a “pretty sudden” decision to sacrifice himself to help Luke and the others escape, and wanted to see his transformation from “fighting a guy, to see Luke and go, ‘I’m gonna die.’”
“It’s one of those universal things we all struggle with, to come to terms with our own mortality,” Beattie explained. “So, that was the second step of the evolution for me, that Obi-Wan now has to come to terms with his own mortality, somehow in a prophecy, or Qui-Gon telling him, ‘There’s going to come a moment where you’re gonna have to sacrifice yourself for the good,’ And then [Obi-Wan] is like, ‘What? No, no, no, no, I’m here to help… I can’t, no.’ And get him to that point where Obi-Wan has accepted the idea that he’s going to die, and that he’s going to die willingly at a crucial moment, and you will know when that moment presents itself.”
“So that when that moment comes up in [A New Hope], you understand. He’s recognizing he’s been on this journey already, and he’s waiting for this moment, and that’s how he’s able to make it so easily,” he continued. “To do this [sacrifice], and die. So that to me was the second evolution, the second film, the second story. So for me, if I have anything to do with the second season of Obi-Wan, that’s the character evolution that I would take him on. That, to me, is really interesting. And like I said, universal.”
Although the trilogy will never get made, fans can see a glimpse of what could have been in the “Obi-Wan Kenobi” series, available to stream in its entirety on Disney+.
