The Hollywood Reporter has a rumor roundup about the Obi-wan Kenobi Disney+ series headed our way. According to their Lucasfilm sources, Darth Maul (and thus actor Ray Parker) were cut out of the series after creative rewrites and Dave Filoni / Jon Favreau had criticisms. One of the more interesting points made in the article is that it was Filoni and Favreau doling out advice, with Kennedy only being a figurehead who pushes a pause button at their behest. There’s no recording whatsoever of Kennedy being part of the creative process.
Sources note that Filoni and Favreau were concerned about Obi-Wan covering similar ground as Mandalorian — the Lone Wolf and Cub-like story of Kenobi coming out of hiding to protect a child-aged Luke Skywalker. Maul was one of the villains who would participate in the hunt for the pair; Vader was nowhere to be found in this faraway galaxy at this stage, according to those with knowledge of the project. Also, Filoni and Favreau pushed Chow and the show to “go bigger,” according to several sources. In any case, those concerns made their way to Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy, who pressed the pause button. (Joby Harold was eventually hired as the show’s new writer.)
Another interesting tidbit in the article is the claim that a young Luke Skywalker role has either been cut from the series or radically reduced in scale.
Fans might have enjoyed seeing Darth Maul face off against Kenobi once more, but it seems that instead this is going to be a Grand Inquisitor and Darth Vader matchup. As I’ve said before, it seems that Diseny executives are feeling very confident about this series, a departure from The Book of Boba Fett that even saw its own star making criticisms during media rounds. And cutting major roles or stars from live action Star Wars series may not be a new thing… rumors have strongly pointed towards a late decision to cut a Han Solo cameo out of the Boba Fett finale.
So what does all of this mean for Kenobi and its potential? At this point there doesn’t seem to be any reason to think this will affect the quality of the show. There is still the ever-present worry that Lucasfilm and Disney have become so corrupted by ideology that they often produce drama that is less timeless and more contextual to the beliefs of certain demographics. However, a switch from Maul to Vader isn’t necessarily a bad thing… so long as they don’t screw up the backstory for A New Hope, the first Star Wars movie from George Lucas. I’m hopeful that Dave Filoni would be wise enough to step in if that were the case.
I’ll save my negativity for The Mandalorian Season 3, which I’m unfortunately hearing has been tasked with trying to reconcile the sequel trilogy with fans… and not in a way that makes Luke Skywalker having murderous thoughts towards his nephew any better. Sigh.
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“tasked with trying to reconcile the sequel trilogy with fans” This is a massive mistake for The Mandalorian Season 3. The ST is what it is at this point. They are objectively bad, not just bad Star Wars movies. Would like to know where this ‘tasking to fix the ST’ is coming from? If it’s from Kennedy that’s one thing, if it’s from higher, then that’s game over for Star Wars.
Disney should look at the reaction to the Galactic Star Cruiser and the merchandise sales to know that ANYTHING ST has limited sales potential. If all roads lead to the Sequel Trilogy, what’s the point of continuing to follow The Mandalorian? The hope of The Mandalorian was that we’d reach a different destination.
There’s no such thing as “objectively bad” movies. Whether or not you like something is completely subjective. To suggest otherwise is silly.
I’ll disagree I think. There are objective criteria by which we can rank order narratives with some precision, though not perfect… where it becomes subjective is when the criteria are assigned values over one another by which we measure. That’s where debates come into play. However, if a movie has significant, important criteria that are of poor execution or nonexistent, the movie can be called “objectively bad” in terms of the product quality. That doesn’t mean an objectively bad movie can therefore not have meaning or impact, only that as a product it has features which are poorly executed in comparison to other similar products. We could also discuss metaphoric truth and whether or not a movie can be metaphorically better or worse in a way that is measurable, but that’s a more complicated issue for another day.
These are essentially serial films. They’re not meant to be taken super seriously. It’s pop culture. Calling something as pop corn as a Star Wars movie “objectively bad” is just way over the top.
A lot of people don’t understand or appreciate that Kennedy is just a minion of Iger and who took the blame in his place for decisions that Iger supported or pushed for. This is why it is laughable to suggest getting rid of Kennedy would solve all of Star Wars’s problems. People who have worked with her describe her as a satellite who basically left her creatives alone. So the problem never was Kennedy, it’s with Hollywood.
Unfortunately that’s not true. Kennedy and Iger never got along after Iger felt betrayed by her Galaxy’s Edge shift that resulted in a public embarrassment for him. He snubbed her in his autobiography as a result.
If true, these are welcome changes.
It would be a mistake to feature Young Luke in any major way. Establish that he knows Obiwan and move on.
As for eliminating Maul, that’s a great choice. The Inquisitors are much more interesting.
As for Vader, they’ll need to handle this very carefully – but I’m hopeful.
With The Mandalorian, Disney finally has a new SW IP that people like. To use a success to “fix” something that is so disliked is like crapping in the bathtub while taking a bath.
The following is just totally speculation/fan wishing on my part, but I have two ideas for how they could handle Vader/Kenobi “fights” without violating the existing canon that New Hope was their first and only meeting after Vader’s fall. And both resolve around the encounters being basically dreams.
The first idea has then being really nothing more than dreams. Both characters are haunted by nightmares of the past. So we see each of them having dreams of fighting the other. It would be interesting to see such haunting dreams from their two totally different perspectives.
The second idea has it being something more than a dream, and the viewers would know this, but the characters would not. Something happens to connect the two in a dream-like state, though they are nowhere near each other physically. Each thinks that the other is a total figment of their imagination/dreams, but they are actually talking to each other and are able to have a fight that, again, each will think is a dream, but is in reality happening in some sort of force-created dream world.
The Maul storyline for Rebels was developed in 2015. There’s no possible way that Maul was ever part of the Obi Wan project. It would violate continuity too much for it to ever gotten far into development. I’m not surprised people from Lucasfilm have squashed that report. It simply doesn’t make sense.
Since when have Favreau and Filoni had any sway over Kenobi? I thought the Kenobi project had always been Kennedys baby and they were not involved.