The Obi-Wan Kenobi Disney+ Star Wars series was originally pitched as a trilogy of feature films, still starring Ewan McGregor.
In an interview with The Direct, one of Obi-Wan Kenobi's credited writers Stuart Beattie revealed that he didn't actually collaborate with the production team but was instead responsible for writing a screenplay for the first of three planned Obi-Wan films. He added that, at the time, both Disney and Ewan McGregor were "absolutely" on board with the idea of a trilogy.
"I wrote the film that they based the show on," Beattie said. "I spent like a year, year and a half working on it. When the decision was made not to make any more spin-off films after Solo came out, I left the project and went on to other things.
"[Executive producer Joby Harold] came on and took my scripts and turned it from two hours into six. So I did not work with them at all, I just got credit for the episodes because it was all my stuff."
Beattie pitched three films to Lucasfilm as he believed the Obi-Wan from Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith had to undergo three different evolutions before he became the Ben we know in A New Hope.
"The first one was the first movie, which was the show, which was: 'surrender to the will of the Force. Transport your will, surrender your will. Leave the kid alone,'" Beattie explained. "The second was thinking about where Kenobi ends up. And one of the most powerful and probably the most powerful moment in all of Obi-Wan's story is that moment where he sacrifices himself in A New Hope.
"Great moment, you know, makes you cry. But, if you stop and think about it, it's a pretty sudden thing, to just kind of go be fighting a guy, to see Luke and go, 'I'm gonna die.' You know, that to me, that required forethought. That required pre-acceptance that this was going to happen."
Beattie didn't share his ideas for the third film but said he was devastated when the trilogy was scrapped as Disney and Lucasfilm shifted major parts of Star Wars storytelling towards TV shows instead of movies.
"It certainly crushed us. Devastated, absolutely devastated," he said. "But, that's the business, you know, highs and lows. I'm glad it got made. I'm glad the show got made. I'm proud of my story that [got] told."
Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy said in May that Star Wars is now about "persistent storytelling" instead of film trilogies, as a regular output of TV shows, one-off films, and even novels, comics, and games will now be used to expand the universe instead of just landmark movie collections. The next film set to be released is from Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi, who also said in May that he'll bring a completely fresh story to the Star Wars universe.
The new model appears to be working, as in our 8/10 review of the first season, IGN said: "Bookended by strong opening and closing chapters, Obi-Wan Kenobi bridges the gap between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope to satisfying effect."
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.