Long before the existence of “Disney+”, Lucasfilm had been developing a trilogy of films featuring “Obi-Wan Kenobi”, however, following the box office failure of “Solo: A Star Wars Story”, Disney put a hold on the project.  But the original story that was going to be the first film in the trilogy was adapted into the “Obi-Wan Kenobi” series on Disney+.

Recently, the original “Obi-Wan Kenobi” movie screenwriter, Stuart Beattie, spoke with The Direct about the Disney+ series.  While he didn’t work on the Disney+, he is credited on the show because they took his screenplay as the main story for the show.  He explained:

“Right, so not at all, none. I wrote the film that they based the show on. So, yeah. 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 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.”

Stuart explained how the main outline of the “Kenobi” trilogy.

“So when I pitched my Obi-Wan story to Lucasfilm, I said, ‘There’s actually three stories here. Because there’s three different evolutions that the character has to make in order to go from Obi-Wan to Ben.’ And 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.’ So then, the second [movie] was thinking about where Kenobi ends up. 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. Great moment, you know, makes you cry. But, if you stop and think about it, it’s a pretty sudden thing, to just kind of go be fighting a guy, to see Luke and go, ‘I’m gonna die.’ You know, that to me, that required forethought. That required pre-acceptance that this was going to happen.”

While there is lots of talk online about a potential second season of “Obi-Wan Kenobi”. However, that wouldn’t be based on the cancelled trilogy, since the screenplay was never written for the second or third film.

“No, just the first. Because they hadn’t hired me to do the others yet, ’cause I was busy working on the first one.”

The “Kenobi” movies might never have been made. However, Stuart was glad that his story was told through the Disney+ series.

“It just was dying to be done. You know, unfortunately, it’s just, it was Solo that changed the direction of the system. I like Solo, personally, but it hadn’t made a lot of money. It is crazy in some ways to think about it how it [was directed by] of the best filmmakers working today. But, just because it didn’t hit a certain number, they just had to rethink. And, again, way above my paygrade, but 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.”

The entire season of “Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi” is available to watch on Disney+ now.

Roger Palmer

Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a kid and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney Parks around the globe and has a vast collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What's On Disney Plus & DisKingdom. Email: Roger@WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com Twitter: Twitter.com/RogPalmerUK Facebook: Facebook.com/rogpalmeruk

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