The Star Wars rumour mill has been in overdrive these past few days, with various reports claiming to have insider knowledge on Disney and Lucasfilm’s “reassessment” of the Star Wars franchise in the wake of the dismal box office performance of Solo: A Star Wars Story.
We’ve heard that all future Anthology movies are on hold, a rumour subsequently denied by Lucasfilm, along with an in-depth report from THR which suggested that the studios are “licking their wounds” and may be “reconfiguring” several projects such as James Mangold’s Boba Fett film, as well as “trying to figure out how to make, and market, [the Anthology movies] differently.”
Adding to that, we now have a rumour from The Playlist which claims that the hotly-anticipated Obi-Wan Kenobi Anthology film is still moving forward, but director Stephen Daldry has left the project and the plan now is to produce the film for Disney’s upcoming streaming service rather than the big screen.
SEE ALSO: Rumour: Billy Dee Williams returning as Lando Calrissian in Star Wars: Episode IX
While it seems unbelievable to imagine that a Star Wars movie could essentially go direct-to-video, it would certainly be a huge feather in the cap for the streaming service, which Disney hopes can compete with Netflix. The service already plans to add a live-action Star Wars TV series from Jon Favreau, and a Ewan McGregor-headlined Obi-Wan movie would certainly help to drive subscriptions.
Assuming that the vast majority – if not all – of an Obi-Wan Kenobi film would take place on Tatooine, it’s unlikely that the project would require anywhere near the budget of Disney’s first four Star Wars movies (i.e. $200 million plus). Perhaps this rumour isn’t quite as ridiculous as it sounds…
Would an Obi-Wan movie be enough to convince you to subscribe to Disney’s streaming service? Would you be outraged if you didn’t get the opportunity to see the fan favourite Jedi Knight back on the big screen? Let us know in the comments below…
SEE ALSO: A Man Named Kenobi: A Star Wars Story Pitch
