At a press event Thursday night, Ewan Mcgregor addressed the drama surrounding the upcoming Disney+ “Star Wars” series “Obi-Wan,” telling reporters that despite news the production has been delayed, the show is happening as scheduled and most of what has been reported is “bulls—.”
“We just pushed the shoot to the beginning of next year. The scripts are really good. I saw 90% of the writing and I really liked it,” Mcgregor said during a press scrum at an event promoting Warner Bros.’ upcoming film “Birds of Prey.”
“All this bulls— about creative differences and all that stuff is, none of it true,” he continued, suggesting that the delay is somewhat related to “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.” “We just pushed the dates, they want — last episode, episode 9 came out, everyone had more time to read the stuff that had been written, and they felt that they wanted to do more work on it. So they slid the shoot. It’s not nearly as dramatic as it sounds online.”
McGregor added that the series will “start shooting in January. I think they want to keep the same release date so it’s not really gonna affect the viewer in any way. It just simply gives them more time to write, make the scripts even better.”
The actor’s comments come hours after widespread reports that production on “Obi-Wan” has been put on an indefinite hold and the London-based crew sent home while Disney and Lucasfilm retool the show and hire a new writer. Disney and Lucasfilm did not immediately respond to a request for comment from TheWrap.
Announced last summer during D23 2019, the Obi-Wan series will take place at some point during the 19-year gap between the end of “Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith” and “Star Wars: A New Hope.” McGregor will once again play the Jedi Master originally portrayed by Alec Guinness and executive produce the series, alongside series director Deborah Chow and writer Hossein Amini. Jason McGatlin, Lucasfilm’s executive vice president of production, will serve as co-producer.
The project will be the third live-action “Star Wars” series for Disney+, following “The Mandalorian” and the “Rogue One” prequel series centered on Diego Luna’s character, Cassian Andor.