The Obi-Wan series delay may be Bad news for Disney Plus

The Obi-Wan series delay may be Bad news for Disney Plus

Bad news for fans of Star Wars, Disney Plus, and Ewan McGregor. The Disney Plus exclusive Obi-Wan series has reportedly been scrapped and the production staff sent home. [According to Collider, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy is reportedly "not happy" with the script for the untitled Obi-Wan series starring Scottish actor Ewan McGregor. The show will follow the adventures of the Jedi master between "Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith" and "Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope" (the timeline of the Star Wars films has gotten really complicated).

The currently reported timeline will follow the adventures of Obi-Wan eight years after he took the high ground against Anakin Skywalker in Episode III. The film will be written by Hossein Amini, director of the film "Drive" and Deborah Chow, who did an excellent job on "The Mandalorian."

Collider has the following to say:

The good news: the show has not been canceled. It's just being postponed, probably until the summer, after the script is reworked. In a recent interview with ET, McGregor responded to production rumors by saying, "The script is really, really good. The script is really, really good. After the success of [The Mandalorian], Kennedy may not want to risk taking another underrated project like Solo. But in doing so, Disney Plus would suffer a major setback.

The problem is that Disney Plus is losing momentum.

After the end of The Mandalorian, the streaming service lost many subscribers who signed up to watch the adventures of Mando and Baby Yoda. Perhaps "The Mandalorian" was the critical success that Disney Plus needed as a launching pad to get back on track. And now, with no other high-profile shows to sustain interest, the spaceship is stalling.

To be sure, there are plenty of families who continue to subscribe to Disney Plus because of its vast catalog of classics and series; Netflix's children's service is a mix of great stuff and garbage; and Disney Plus is a great place to start, but it's not a great place to start for the kids. Disney Plus has them covered and offers great value.

However, this catalog has little appeal to those who want to see new films. After all, one can only watch all the Marvel movies so many times and in so many different ways. The same is true of the Star Wars films and series. That's why "The Mandalorian" was so exciting and why people want to see series like Obi-Wan and "Loki."

In fact, Disney was already in trouble for both Star Wars and Marvel titles, as their 2020 schedule was already mostly blank. Aside from a new season of the animated "Clone Wars" coming out in February, there is definitely nothing new worth watching until "The Mandalorian" Season 2 and "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier" are released this fall.

And that may be a real problem in the hyper-competitive streaming wars.

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