'Obi-Wan Kenobi' Was Originally Planned As A Trilogy

It’s been exactly one week since Lucasfilm’s latest Disney+ spin-off, Obi-Wan Kenobi, came to a close. While some may argue that the series’ 6-episode run was too short, a recent interview with one of its writers revealed that the studio originally had bigger plans for the character.

Speaking with The Direct, writer Stuart Beattie (episodes I-III, VI) said that the character was actually supposed to return in his own trilogy of films. In fact, Beattie explained that he was brought on board to write the screenplay for the first Obi-Wan Kenobi film, and that plans for the project died out after the underwhelming performance of Solo at the box office.

“The decision was made not to make any more spin-off films after Solo came out,” he said. “I left the project and went on to other things. Joby [Harold] came on and took my scripts and turned it from two hours into six.”

Beattie went on to say that, despite being credited for writing episodes I-III and VI, he did not oversee any of the production. He said, “I just got credit for the episodes because it was all my stuff.”

He added that his original pitch to Lucasfilm was specifically for three stories:

“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.”

Beattie elaborated that he wanted to focus on the Jedi master coming to terms with his own mortality:

“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...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.“

While it’s still unclear if/when we’ll see Ewan McGregor reprise his role as Kenobi, Beattie also said that the actor was excited to return to the franchise when it was originally supposed to be three films. So it’s not the craziest idea to think that he’d also want to return to fill in the rest of the character’s arc.

All 6 episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi are available to stream now on Disney+.

SOURCE: The Direct