Obi-Wan Kenobi's story will work better as a TV series, and 'The Mandalorian' shows us how best to go about it
Back in August, at the D23 Expo, Disney officially announced an upcoming TV series that would return Ewan McGregor to the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi, and follow the story of his life after the ‘Revenge of the Sith’ on Tatooine as he secretly watches over a growing Luke Skywalker. As established in ‘A New Hope’, Obi-Wan Kenobi remained on Tatooine well into old age, leaving his life as a Jedi behind him. It’s a story much better suited for television than a movie, and, thanks to ‘The Mandalorian’, we know just how well that can work.
‘The Mandalorian’ brings back the best of old school television viewing experiences. Interviews with cast, crew and creators have been limited, as has any information about the series beyond what we’re presented with, week after week.
‘The Mandalorian’ brings a fair amount of buzz each episode, and has kept viewers hooked despite the weekly schedule. The show takes the big budget effects of the movies, and lets viewers truly absorb the aesthetic of the ‘Star Wars’ universe, giving them more time to do so than the average 2-hour movie.
The Obi-Wan TV series will need similar pacing. It’s not ‘Star Wars: Clone Wars,’ following Obi-Wan Kenobi in his prime, at the peak of war. This is a defeated Obi-Wan, who has lost and is left with very little besides regrets, and a mission. He will be a man watching from the shadows, watching the child of his closest friend turned foe grow up. Whatever the story will be, it will be one that requires time to tell - and ‘The Mandalorian’ has shown that ‘Star Wars’ live action stories can work on a streaming format.
One of the show’s writers, Hossein Amini, agrees in an interview with ComicBook.com. “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,” he said.
With director Deborah Chow making a strong debut in the ‘Star Wars’ universe with Chapter 3 of ‘The Mandalorian’, fans are eager to see what she has planned for the announced but untitled Obi-Wan Kenobi TV series.
In an interview with the New York Times, she’s mentioned all she’s been learning so far to apply to the show. “One of the biggest benefits is that I just spent the last year in the “Star Wars” universe and I had great mentors, coming in under Jon and Dave,” she said. “Absorbing that, I feel, was the best training I could have had to take on the next one.”
No release date for the Obi-Wan series has been made, yet, but filming will begin in 2020.
