Kathleen Kennedy Says Obi-Wan Kenobi Script Was Rewritten to Be More Hopeful

The Disney+ Obi-Wan Kenobi series finally received a trailer this week, and it looked pretty darn good all things considered. Entertainment Weekly has been providing exclusive coverage of the series all week, culminating today in a feature interviewing most of the cast. This includes talks with star Ewan McGregor, Hayden Christensen (Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader), Moses Ingram (new villain Inquisitor Reva), and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, among others. One of the things Kennedy explained in this interview is that the script for Obi-Wan Kenobi was essentially rewritten to make it a more “hopeful” story.

“We’re looking, ultimately, to make a hopeful, uplifting story,” she said. “And it’s tricky when you’re starting with a character in the state that Obi-Wan would be in coming off of Revenge of the Sith. That’s a pretty bleak period of time. You can’t just wave the magic wand with any writer and arrive at a story that necessarily reflects what you want to feel.”

The original script writer was Hossein Amini, who had been brought on back when Obi-Wan Kenobi was supposed to be a movie, not a Disney+ series. Joby Harold was offered the opportunity to do the rewrite, and since he was a huge fan of the Obi-Wan character, he “very aggressively told them all the things (he) thought they should do.”

It can be worrying when a hardcore fan suddenly tries to force all of their ideas onto a long-lived franchise. However, it sounds like Harold explored some promising ideas in his “hopeful” Obi-Wan Kenobi script. Ewan McGregor acknowledged that there is a definite shift in personality between Obi-Wan at the end of Revenge of the Sith and at the beginning of A New Hope, and this story will address that.

“When we last saw Obi-Wan in the prequels, he’s very emotional,” said Joby Harold. “There’s a passion to him. And when we get to see him again in A New Hope, he is the Zen master. That was the story that I wanted to understand — what had happened to Obi-Wan between the guy that Ewan had brought to life and the guy that Sir Alec Guinness brought to life.”

The EW feature is filled with amusing tidbits. For instance, Hayden Christensen and Moses Ingram both talked about how extremely considerate McGregor was to them on set. They all also talked about how enrapturing it was for Christensen to walk out again in the Darth Vader armor. (It is not confirmed if 91-year-old James Earl Jones will voice the character though.)

Also, if you have been wondering if Obi-Wan Kenobi could get another season, the answer is — maybe. This series was conceived as “one full story,” according to director Deborah Chow. However, Kathleen Kennedy is willing to entertain a follow-up if they can justify it.

“(A sequel’s) certainly something we talk about, mainly because everybody came together and had such an incredible time,” she said. “Ewan had an incredible time. Hayden had an incredible time. So certainly from that point of view, everybody involved would love to see this not end. But we have to really spend our time asking the question: Why would we do it? If we were to decide to do anything more with the Obi-Wan character, we’d have to really answer the question (–) why?”