Star Wars: Reports of Obi-Wan Series Being Cancelled Have Been Debunked

Disney and Lucasfilm remain in development on the live-action Star Wars series starring Ewan McGregor‘s Obi-Wan Kenobi, despite rumors the upcoming Disney+ series was cancelled. Multiple industry journalists on Friday posted cryptic tweets on social media intimating the series was axed, including Twitter scooper Daniel Richtman, whose Patreon reported the series was “delayed indefinitely” and “possibly dead.” Most of those tweets have since been deleted. The rumor appears to be traced back to a parody account — one imitating Discussing Film, but with a key typo in the Twitter handle — igniting a flurry of tweets worrying the still-untitled Obi-Wan had become one with the Force.

Sources close to the production tell ComicBook.com the series has not been cancelled. Officially revealed by McGregor and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy during Disney’s bi-annual D23 Expo in August, where Kennedy announced a planned 2020 shooting start, this next Star Wars series explores the Jedi’s exile in the years between Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars Episode IV – A New Hope.

In a past interview with the genuine Discussing Film, series scribe Hossein Amini said the project was best suited for a six-episode series because of the “complex” state of Kenobi’s own mindset following the near-extinction of the Jedi — mostly wiped out in Revenge of the Sith by an order handed down by new Galactic Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) — and complexities surrounding the state of the galaxy, thrust into a dictatorship in the final episode of creator George Lucas’ prequel trilogy.

“There is so much going on between [Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope] that hasn’t been explored. The idea of being able to go into a character journey plus the politics and plus all the vastness of the empire and what’s going on is exciting just because it feels like a proper period of history and sometimes that is hard to do in two hours,” Amini said. “Sometimes with two-hour movies there is always an imperative for the action and the plot to move particularly fast and quickly, and to go from action sequence to action sequence, and there are many more aspects to storytelling that I find interesting.”

Originally developed as a spinoff movie like young Han Solo prequel Solo: A Star Wars Story, Obi-Wan will instead be the third live-action Star Wars series to debut on Disney’s streaming service following the Jon Favreau-created The Mandalorian, now in development on its sophomore season, and a Rogue One spinoff centered around Diego Luna’s Cassian Andor.

Disney has yet to mark a release date for Obi-Wan.