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Obi-Wan Kenobi Disney Plus series filming delayed until 2021

Star Ewan McGregor doesn't think it'll change the release date for the Star Wars show.

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Ewan McGregor won't have to grow his Obi-Wan Kenobi beard until next year, it seems.

Lucasfilm

Ewan McGregor is keeping the high ground as rumors about the Obi-Wan Kenobi show swirl. Speaking at a Birds of Prey event on Thursday, the actor confirmed to CNET sister site Comicbook.com that the filming for the Disney Plus Star Wars series has been delayed from summer 2020 to early 2021.

"It just slipped to next year, that's all," McGregor told media at the event. "instead of shooting this August, they just want to start shooting in January, that's all. It's nothing more dramatic than that. It often happens in projects, they just wanted to push it to next year."

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He noted that the unnamed show's release date, which hadn't been announced anyway, is unlikely to change as a result.

McGregor also responded to a report that the Hossein Amini-penned scripts were being dumped in favor of a new writer, saying people at Lucasfilm are taking more time to assess the show's writing now that The Rise of Skywalker is out. The same report suggested that the show's episode count had been cut from six to four, but McGregor said he hadn't heard that.

Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy and McGregor announced the show during Disney's biannual D23 convention last August. It takes place eight years after Revenge of the Sith and 11 years before A New Hope, in an era when the Jedi Order has been virtually wiped out by the Empire and Obi-Wan is hiding on Tatooine. Deborah Chow, who helmed two episodes of The Mandalorian, will direct.

Neither Disney nor Lucasfilm immediately responded to requests for comment on the delay in filming.

First published at 4:46 a.m. PT.
Updated at 5 a.m. PT: Adds more detail.

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