Pixar Heavyweight Writer Included In 'Obi-Wan Kenobi' Credits

New Names Added To The Crew Of The Highly Anticipated Series

By Culture SlatePublished 4 years ago • 3 min read

With about a month and a half to go until the latest Disney+ Star Wars live-action series, Obi-Wan Kenobi, is released, we are slowly getting more and more information about the Ewan McGregor-led show. We know it will take place around a decade after Revenge of the Sith and will involve McGregor watching over a young Skywalker while avoiding Darth Vader and his fearsome Inquisitors. We also know that Vader will be portrayed by Hayden Christensen for the first time since Revenge of the Sith, Moses Ingram will be playing an ambitious and ruthless Inquisitor, alongside Rupert Friend as the Grand Inquisitor. Other than that, the rest is speculative.

Disney and Lucasfilm are being tight-lipped about everything and, although the recent trailer does show some bursts of action, it wasn’t exactly the most revealing. So, it’s a very thrilling time for Star Wars fans. In terms of production, the series will be directed by Deborah Chow and Stuart Beattie, and Hossein Amini and Joby Harold take the lead in the writing department for the first couple of episodes.

Pixar Dream Team Writers Added to the List

Additional writing credits have been released on an official listing, posted via Reddit by the Writer’s Guild of America West. This post notes that Hannah Friedman and Andrew Stanton are involved in the writing of several episodes in the second half of the series. Those names will sound familiar to any Disney/Pixar fans as Stanton was a writer on Monsters Inc. and all four of the Toy Story films, and directed Finding Nemo, WALL-E, and the Finding Nemo-sequel, Finding Dory.

Friedman was a feature writer at Disney Feature Animation and Pixar Braintrust and has recently been working as an executive producer on the forthcoming Disney+ series Willow. Those additional details are encouraging in terms of expectation for the series and show that Disney+ are giving the same level of care and attention to the Kenobi series as they have with The Book of Boba Fett and The Mandalorian.

It’s also good news for the plot of the series, although we know precious little about it, it is expected to concentrate on the loss and darkness that has fallen over the galaxy. At least for the beginning of the series, it has been suggested that Obi-Wan will be beaten, faithless, and broken, with a sense of hope returning to the galaxy in the form of young Skywalker. That feeling of perseverance through hopelessness will be perfect in Andrew Stanton’s hands, given his Pixar credits that have all revolved around those concepts. This fits in with Lucasfilm’s aim of creating an uplifting and positive story.

The experience Friedman has from Pixar Braintrust will also be key, as that group oversees Pixar film development. She will undoubtedly help to ensure that the narrative running throughout the series and the core theme of hope will be intact. The fact that she has worked with Lucasfilm on the development of the Willow series means there is already familiarity there, which will make for easier collaboration.

Are You Excited for What Obi-Wan Kenobi Will Bring?

The Obi-Wan Kenobi series has seen its fair share of ups and downs from a production point of view. Originally it was intended to be a standalone film alongside Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Solo: A Star Wars Story, but those plans were scrapped following the box office bomb of Solo.

We will have to wait and see if Lucasfilm and Disney+ can score another hit following the success of The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett. If anything, it will be good to bridge the gap between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, showing how Obi-Wan Kenobi came to be the crazy old wizard we see in the latter.

Obi-Wan Kenobi will premiere with its first two episodes on May 27th and run through June 22nd on Disney+.

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