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So I suspect you'll all have seen the news. Industry Sources (one presumes different 'we're actually making this up' Industry Sources to BoLS) are reporting we're getting an Obi Wan film as part of Disney's anthology film series.

Me, I'm in two minds. If it follows the frankly excellent standard set by the 'Twin Suns' episode of Rebels, Season 3, this film could be completely brilliant.

But....so far we've got Rogue One as the anthology film, with Han Solo due out next year. Now for me, Rogue One really worked because it explored the Star Wars galaxy without overly involving established characters. That meant the writers could go anywhere, do anything. And what we got was quite simply one of the best, if not the best Star Wars films ever. YMMV of course, but I'm sincere here.

My concern is that by focussing on a single character we already know quite well, you end up trammelled in the same way as the prequel trilogy. We know where things must end up, so it's difficult to get any of the 'I am your Father' moments shoe horned in. Indeed, if old Obi Wan gets up to much, it can't be overly significant to what follows, or else it'll be 'but you knew that when you did this, but didn't act accordingly, THIS MAKE NO SENSE'.

Mind you, I had concerns about Rogue One when I first heard about it, and that turned out superbly. One just hopes the Han Solo, erm, solo outing turns out even half as well as Rogue One, because it's the first film to set the 'old character, new story' quality. Given it's got a new director (Ron Howard, pretty safe hands....or safe Hans....chortle) it seems to be having a difficult birth - but then so did Ant-Man, and that's still a cracking film.

For now though, I'm considering it to be rumour only. Until we get an official announcement, I tend to chalk Star Wars rumours up to 'bored journo with a deadline'.

Anyone else care to comment?

Well we don't know a lot about Obi between Episode 3 and Episode 4. I suspect a lot of cool and very telling things happen in that time period. If they focused on that period. It could be a sweet little rouge one type experience (though not possibly as epic - no death stars to try to destroy) . Also - Yoda - could easily get some of that goodness in there as well.

My concern is that we know where they need to end up.

There can be no challenging of moral structure, no meaningful character development.

Also, Rebels has been filling in some blanks already.

Well - any development of Obiwan's character I think would be cool. You are right to be cautious though - some things are just better left in mystery.

I'm totally up for it, especially if they can get Ewan McGregor back. Say what you like about the prequels, he was pretty damn great.

With Rebels resolving the Maul arc, an Anthology film can now explore other aspects of Obi-Wan's life; given that we've not yet seen him discover than Anakin is Vader that could easily occupy a film in and of itself. Obi-wan sets out to discover more about The Emperor's new right hand, and eventually discovers the truth that he failed to kill him on Mustafar. In ANH, Vader describes a 'presence I have not felt since...' so that could easily accommodate a meeting between the two between 3 and 4.

I think it also has scope to be a real character piece, something SW as a whole could definitely benefit from. Not necessarily Obi-Wan in the style of Logan, but I'd not be averse to something along those lines.

Another word of warning on adding to a character's mythos.

For those who haven't seen Clone Wars (you really should. You really, really should.), this is Asajj Ventriss.



In terms of 'still canon', Asajj is hands down one of the most interesting characters. Former Padawan, dark side Force User but not quite Sith. Daughter of the Night Sisters, and abused by both sides of the Force.

At the end of the Clone Wars TV series, she was shaping up to be something akin to a Grey Jedi. Highly proficient in both sides, beholden to neither. She was forging her own path. The writing was up to snuff as well.

Then came a follow up novel. Where she was killed off. Killed off to trigger Mangst. LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMEEEEEEEEE. A unique character utterly squandered to make Little Heard Of Jedi #1654103574156 get a bit down in the dumps. Just....blimey.

Now I know that's a very different medium. The lameness came in the form of a book. But man, that's canon. And that worries me.

Yoda and Fett are apparently under consideration for getting standalones too. Probably not worth its own thread until nearer release, fits nicely with this topic.

http://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/films/842754/Star-Wars-spin-offs-Yoda-Boba-Fett-Obi-Wan-Kenobi-Ewan-McGregor

I could see Boba Fett as a "simple man trying to make his way in the (Rogue One) universe." That could be interesting.

Obi, free of Darth BS might be interesting, but it might be not as well.

Any Obi-Wan movie has a 85% chance of being catastrophically dumb. Probably more like 97%.

I'm prepared for an avant guard, art house film subtitled "20 years alone in a hut."

Ha! I guess it could be a roundabout way to remake the PT, remembered by Obi-Wan with a better cast and sensible dialogue.

Star Wars: Obiwan Kenobi and the Man in the Yellow Wallpaper.

I'd watch that.


Anything else is just going to be Obiwan taking responsibility for young Skywalker's safety... except for all the times he went off on wacky adventures. Unless they were adventures in babysitting.

So Trainspotting 2 with sand and lightsabers

I mean if we go with post 3 Obi Wan, he's just a hermit in a desert.


If we go with early Obi Wan, then we might have an Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom remake with lightsabers.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Another word of warning on adding to a character's mythos.

For those who haven't seen Clone Wars (you really should. You really, really should.), this is Asajj Ventriss.



In terms of 'still canon', Asajj is hands down one of the most interesting characters. Former Padawan, dark side Force User but not quite Sith. Daughter of the Night Sisters, and abused by both sides of the Force.

At the end of the Clone Wars TV series, she was shaping up to be something akin to a Grey Jedi. Highly proficient in both sides, beholden to neither. She was forging her own path. The writing was up to snuff as well.

Then came a follow up novel. Where she was killed off. Killed off to trigger Mangst. LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMEEEEEEEEE. A unique character utterly squandered to make Little Heard Of Jedi #1654103574156 get a bit down in the dumps. Just....blimey.

Now I know that's a very different medium. The lameness came in the form of a book. But man, that's canon. And that worries me.

Are the novels canon again now? I never can keep up with what is official SW and what isn't.
I agree Ventress was definitely one of the more interesting parts of Clone Wars, though.
I really liked Ahsoka as well, even if she was a big collection of tropes. I liked how they avoided being forced to kill her off at the end of S5 by her refusing the offer to come back into the Jedi order. (I've not finished S6 or Rebels yet, so if they kill her off there anyway I shall be very cross.)

Some are. Sadly, this one definitely is. Which is rubbish!

I really feel an Obi Wan movie is not necessary. He's got plenty of screentime as it is. Why can't Disney invent some new characters or something for a movie? It's like the old EU was so much more creative than the crap Disney is doing right now. If they can't get Ewan back then i'm definitely giving it a pass. I don't feel like seeing 3 people play Obi Wan its absurd.

2 meh SW movies from Disney so far, it's not looking like a bright future. If all they can do is rehash the same things over and over....

Considering the best characters in TFA were new ... Thargrim, you may be onto something. Then again, R1 was a cast of duds.

There's hell of a gap between introducing new characters alongside established ones and expecting new ones to carry a movie. That's a hell of a gamble to take with a massive franchise, especially if you end up with a Jar Jar rather than a Rey.

Manchu wrote:Considering the best characters in TFA were new ... Thargrim, you may be onto something. Then again, R1 was a cast of duds.

Rogue One jumped around a lot and didn't do much to develop it's kind of large setup of characters. It would have been a good chance to have a quirky Bothan character or some alien on the team but they went with a mostly human team and a rather flat droid. At times I felt like they may have cast people in an attempt to pander to racial diversity or something instead of picking a person who is spot on for the character. IP man sucked me right out of the movie man he was comical and lame he was like the jar jar of the movie repeating the same line over and over it nearly delved into self parody. At least Felicity Jones is easy on the eyes, besides that some dull stuff in that movie...

Azreal13 wrote:There's hell of a gap between introducing new characters alongside established ones and expecting new ones to carry a movie. That's a hell of a gamble to take with a massive franchise, especially if you end up with a Jar Jar rather than a Rey.

Well we are getting a mostly brand new cast in the Han Solo movie a lot of people who have never been in Star Wars...so I guess we'll see how that turns out. They might be playing the same characters just younger...still new actors though. Funny you mention Rey...while I like her character I kind of felt she became too powerful too quickly in TFA. I'm hoping they treat her and the rest of the cast in a more believable manner in the upcoming one. I also thought Poe Dameron was criminally underused cause Oscar Isaac can be very good in some of his roles...Ex Machina comes to mind.

I don't know if you're familiar with the story, but Poe was supposed to die in the crash on Jakku, but what Isaac did was so well liked that they decided to keep the character (much like Jesse and Aaron Paul in Breaking Bad.)

Hence he feels rather shoehorned and underused, simply because he wasn't supposed to be there. From the next film on, they'll have obviously written the script with his presence better integrated, so we should see more, and better, of him.

I think that re-cast characters still carry less risk than brand new ones, there's a much reduced need for "origin stories," less exposition and, in the case of prequels, lots of nods and winks and nostalgia to capitalize on. We know Han, for instance, is a well liked character, so as long as they stay true to the essence of the character, then even poor acting will have its damage mitigated.

If they diverge too far from the essence of the characters, then what we've esssentially got is new characters anyway.

 Thargrim wrote:

Rogue One jumped around a lot and didn't do much to develop it's kind of large setup of characters. It would have been a good chance to have a quirky Bothan character

No bothans were harmed in the theft of the FIRST death star plans. That was the SECOND one, and they all died like lemmings.

 Paradigm wrote:
I'm totally up for it, especially if they can get Ewan McGregor back. Say what you like about the prequels, he was pretty damn great.

With Rebels resolving the Maul arc, an Anthology film can now explore other aspects of Obi-Wan's life; given that we've not yet seen him discover than Anakin is Vader that could easily occupy a film in and of itself. Obi-wan sets out to discover more about The Emperor's new right hand, and eventually discovers the truth that he failed to kill him on Mustafar. In ANH, Vader describes a 'presence I have not felt since...' so that could easily accommodate a meeting between the two between 3 and 4.

I think it also has scope to be a real character piece, something SW as a whole could definitely benefit from. Not necessarily Obi-Wan in the style of Logan, but I'd not be averse to something along those lines.

That's not half bad actually, I'd watch that.

 Manchu wrote:
Considering the best characters in TFA were new ... Thargrim, you may be onto something. Then again, R1 was a cast of duds.

notsureifserious.jpg

Is this a thing, people actually consider the cast and characters of TFA, which are basically "take the guys from the OT and swap a few character traits from one to another", superior to R1's? I mean R1 wasn't perfect, but at least it and its characters were something more than JJ's...I don't even know, "homage" doesn't seem like strong enough a word for something like TFA.

 chromedog wrote:

 Thargrim wrote:

Rogue One jumped around a lot and didn't do much to develop it's kind of large setup of characters. It would have been a good chance to have a quirky Bothan character

No bothans were harmed in the theft of the FIRST death star plans. That was the SECOND one, and they all died like lemmings.

To be fair the two-faced double dealing kitty-cats had it coming, didn't the Emperor's plan hinge on them being duplicitous sods ?

Yes, TFA had likeable, fun characters. R1 had bland nobodies whose names I cannot remember, aside from Director Krennic.

Agreed.

I just didn't care about what happened to them, and that robbed the whole movie of much of its impact.

 Azreal13 wrote:
Agreed.

I just didn't care about what happened to them, and that robbed the whole movie of much of its impact.

We'll have to agree to disagree. TFA was a wet donkey balls sad imitation of Star Wars which turned me off watching any more of those next gen films. Rogue One was a war movie, with lasers (and Vader putting the Dark back in Dark Side).

Not talking about the movies generally, just the characters. Agree that TFA had issues with retreading ANH. But I know the characters from that movie and really look forward to seeing them again. By contrast, could not care less that R1 nobodies are all dead.

 Manchu wrote:
Yes, TFA had likeable, fun characters. R1 had bland nobodies whose names I cannot remember, aside from Director Krennic.

If by "likeable and fun" you mean "utterly devoid of any defining characteristic other than the tropes culled from their superior forerunners", sure, I suppose. It took six months and multiple reminders before I could even remember Rey's name, the only memorable character in TFA was the new robot and only then because of how utterly daft it was. But hey I'm wierd, if I want to watch ANH I just watch ANH rather than JJ's shonky imitation.

It took you six months and multiple reminders to learn that her name is Rey?