Following the release of Solo: A Star Wars Story, there seemed to be a change at Lucasfilm that saw a number of future projects being put on the backburner or being scrapped entirely. One project that seemed to be in uncertain territory was an Obi-Wan Kenobi movie that would have followed solo and brought Ewan McGregor back to Star Wars as the Jedi master. Now of course we are getting ready to see McGregor and Hayden Christensen in the series Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy has revealed how the launch of Disney+ played a big part in the project’s transition from movie to series.
Following the huge success of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, there was a whole wave of follow-up movies put into development including a Han Solo movie, which was released, a Boba Fett movie, and an Obi-Wan Kenobi movie. However, after Solo: A Star Wars Story received mixed reviews and underperformed compared to Rogue One, those movies seemed to be lost forever.
While talking to EW about the upcoming series, Kennedy mentioned the development of Obi-Wan Kenobi, and how the decision of Disney to enter the streaming world would change the direction of the Star Wars franchise. She said:
"When Bob Iger very specifically said, 'We are going to start to shift our priority to making series for Disney+, and we're launching the streaming service,' that really was what shifted our strategy. We started to look at the opportunity in the streaming space where we could do long-form storytelling, and we realized there was an opportunity to experiment in that space without the level of scrutiny that happens when you release a feature."
Disney’s Decision To Turn To Streaming For Their Biggest IPs Has Paid Off So Far
While the strategy was a huge gamble for Disney, there is no doubt that their foray into TV streaming with their Marvel and Star Wars franchises has massively paid off. Star Wars kicked off their live action TV shows with The Mandalorian, and the series starring Pedro Pascal has become one of the highest rated Star Wars projects ever. Earning a number of awards, critical praise and a huge audience response, fans of the series are looking forward to the third season of that show later in the year, but all eyes are now resting firmly on Obi-Wan Kenobi to see how well that series fares with audiences and critics.
December saw the release of The Book of Boba Fett, a show that brought back one of the biggest fan favorite characters of the Star Wars canon in a series that ended up being dubbed The Mandalorian Season 2.5. Despite being highly anticipated, the show didn’t quite hit the heights of the flagship series and for many relied too much on fan-service cameos and The Mandalorian’s story. Many people are now waiting to find out if Obi-Wan Kenobi can manage to avoid succumbing to the fan-service trap and also hold onto some kind of continuity from Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope at the same time. All will be revealed when the series premieres on Disney+ on May 25.