While it is no doubt that the vast majority of Star Wars fans have been thrilled by the return of Ewan McGregor in Obi-Wan Kenobi, some believe the series would have worked better as a movie. Considering McGregor himself said just before the series premiere that he saw the latest Star Wars show as being more like a movie broken into parts than a series of episodes with a rise and fall. It seems that according to Stuart Beattie, who made the original pitch for Obi-Wan Kenobi’s return back in 2016, the plan then was for not one, but a trilogy of movies.

Whether this bodes well for another season of Obi-Wan Kenobi is something that we can only wait and see, but before the TV series was an option, and before the performance of Solo: A Star Wars Story ended Lucasfilm’s prequel movies run, Beattie provided a pitch that would have shown Kenobi’s transition from the character he was at the end of Revenge of the Sith to the one willing to die on board the Death Star. The writer told The Direct:

"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...It's one of those universal things we all struggle with, to come to terms with our own mortality. 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. 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."

Related: Obi-Wan Kenobi: Should the Disney+ Series Have Been a Movie Instead?

Obi-Wan Kenobi Could Return Using Beattie’s Original Premise

Obi-Wan Kenobi prepares to fight against Darth Vader
Disney

While Stuart Beattie had no direct involvement in the Obi-Wan Kenobi series, he does get writing credits on a number of episodes thanks to his original story work, which was incorporated into the show. While Kathleen Kennedy and Deborah Chow have both said that fan reactions to the show have made it clear that if they can find the right story to tell, there could be more to come from Obi-Wan Kenobi, it seems that there may well be a story already waiting there for the taking.

Obi-Wan Kenobi recorded one of the highest ever Disney+ openings, beating even The Mandalorian, and the viewership has remained strong with the series. Despite some minor gripes being aired on social media halfway through the series, the final episodes delivered exactly what everyone had been waiting to see and more, making Obi-Wan Kenobi another massive hit for the Star Wars canon.