Since its announcement (well, confirmation, really, since it was largely known about) at D23 in August, there has been a trickle of news about the Disney+ Obi-Wan series, particularly since star Ewan McGregor has been out promoting Doctor Sleep. But the latest updates comes from a less likely source, the show's main writer Hossein Amini.
Amini, more known for Drive and his work on movies such as The Wings Of The Dove than that galaxy far, far away, has been on board the series for a couple of years now, sworn to secrecy by Lucasfilm. But he's been finding the story of Kenobi's time between the tragedy of Revenge Of The Sith and the growing rebellion in Star Wars a fertile one.
"It’s fascinating in the sense that it’s a period where there is a lot of change in the galaxy and a lot of hardship," he tells Discussing Film. "So, for Obi Wan’s character, he has a lot to adjust to given the loss of his close friends and the order that he believed in. It felt like a really exciting opportunity to explore a different side of a franchise that I always loved and I’ve always loved it because of its spiritual aspects as well as its fun and action elements, it seems to work on way more than one level which isn’t always true for those big franchises. 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. 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."
But before the series was even an idea, there was the idea to turn this period of Kenobi's story into a film, with Stephen Daldry hired to develop it. That was quietly shut down in the wake of Solo failing to connect, but then Disney+ offered a new outlet. Amini, however, was already aboard. "I was initially contacted by the original director for the film version, Stephen Daldry and chatted with him and loved him as a director and then with Lucasfilm, it was more of a conversation than a pitch, I am incredibly gracious about it. They didn’t make it feel like an audition."
And, as a confirmed Wars fan, he's been enjoying digging into the research. "I’ve been researching madly for a really long time and also because I love the research, with other projects too, like I said I studied History so in a way the great thing about Star Wars is that obviously, it started with George Lucas but the fans and writers and comic book artists have all contributed massively to this world that is vast so I think as a fan I have a certain responsibility to that group and I think it’s really important to be respectful," he says. "Yes I’ve always loved putting something of myself in as a writer but when it’s something like this I think you have to know it like you would a piece of history you would be studying with all the characters and what has come before and in this case what’s come after as well." For more from Amini, head toDiscussing Film's interview.
The Obi-Wan series is scheduled to start shooting in July next year, which means it'll hopefully arrive in 2021.