Well before “Obi-Wan Kenobi” became the series it is today and debuted on Disney+, the original idea at Lucasfilm was to tell the story in a feature film. For years, the “Obi-Wan Kenobi” feature film was in development, but nothing ever came to be, largely because “Solo: A Star Wars Story” derailed the idea of having a bunch of spinoff films. That said, the script for that ‘Obi-Wan’ film was apparently used as the backbone for the recent show. However, one of the original writers is now saying he planned on turning “Obi-Wan Kenobi” into its own franchise.
Speaking to The Direct, screenwriter Stuart Beattie talks about his ideas for the “Obi-Wan Kenobi” film that was in development years before the show and how his script was morphed into the series. He also explained that his original plan for ‘Obi-Wan’ was to tell three separate stories over the course of a trilogy (“Star Wars” does love its trilogies), but that was all thrown away when ‘Solo’ failed to do well at the box office.
“Joby [Harold, showrunner for ‘Obi-Wan’] came on and took my scripts and turned it from two hours into six,” said Beattie. “So, I did not work with them at all, I just got credit for the episodes because it was all my stuff.”
But even though his script for the “Obi-Wan Kenobi” film was turned into a six-hour series, Beattie explained that his story was meant to be the first of three that he envisioned. And he thinks he cracked the code for what other Obi-Wan Kenobi stories could be.
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“So 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,’” he explained. “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. And 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.”
Beattie would go on to further explain his idea for a second story, where Obi-Wan “has to come to terms with his own mortality,” and that Qui-Gon might have to warn him of a time when he’d have to sacrifice himself for the greater good. So, when the time comes in “A New Hope” and Obi-Wan disappears and turns into a Force Ghost, it has more meaning and context.
“He’s recognizing he’s been on this journey already, and he’s waiting for this moment, and that’s how he’s able to make it so easily. To do this [sacrifice], and die,” said Beattie. “So that to me was the second evolution, the second film, the second story. So for me, if I have anything to do with the second season of ‘Obi Wan,’ that’s the character evolution that I would take him on. That, to me, is really interesting. And like I said, universal.”
The writer does admit that he never formally worked on a second or third script for his planned ‘Obi-Wan’ trilogy because the failure of ‘Solo’ made those plans change quickly. However, it’s clear Beattie has some strong ideas for where the show could go, if Lucasfilm does want to continue the story.
However, it’s unclear if Lucasfilm does want a second season of ‘Obi-Wan’ or not? Obviously, the series did really well on Disney+ and we know how the studio loves to capitalize on success. So, perhaps Beattie might get a phone call from Kathleen Kennedy. We’ll have to wait and see.