Earlier this year, the prospect of Disney+’s standalone Obi-Wan Kenobi series met with serious doubt. In January, we heard rumors that the show had been canceled entirely. A followup story reported that would be delayed indefinitely, after Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy was apparently unhappy with the scripts. Disney ultimately pushed back production from the summer of 2020 to early 2021. But star Ewan McGregor called reported script problems “bulls***.” He had seen “90% of the writing” and described it as “really good.” But it’s clear that not everyone felt the same way, as we now hear that a new writer has been hired for the project. Variety reports that Disney has tapped John Wick 3 and Edge of Tomorrow executive producer Joby Harold as series writer.
Harold will replace Hossein Amini (who wrote Drive and The Snowman) on the series. Amini left the show back in January. Clearly Lucasfilm didn’t like his scripts, despite what the show’s star had to say.
Lucasfilm
In addition to writing and directing 2007’s Awake with Hayden Christensen and Jessica Alba, Harold also wrote the script for Guy Ritchie’s King Arthur movie and for Zack Snyder’s upcoming Army of the Dead. He is presently co-developing a new Transformers franchise for Paramount. With production on all Hollywood projects currently on hold, it’s unknown when the Obi-Wan series will begin filming, so Harold could have plenty of time to rewrite the entire season.
There seem to be no other major changes in front or behind the camera. Deborah Chow will still direct, which is good news as she already has an impressive résumé in television. Not only has she already proved successful handling the galaxy far, far away, directing two outstanding episodes in season one of The Mandalorian, but she’s also directed episodes of Better Call Saul, American Gods, Mr. Robot, and Lost in Space.
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