The Scottish actor Ewan McGregor (48) is set to reprise his role as Obi-Wan Kenobi in Lucasfilm's Star Wars film series for a new live-action Star Wars drama series for Disney's new video streaming service, Disney+ that will launch on 22 November in the United States.
Disney has not put out a statement about Ewan McGregor's return to the Star Wars universe and the new as-yet-untitled series, but the Hollywood trade publications all reported his attachment to a new series in development that will see him reprise the role he played in the three Star Wars prequel films, The Phantom Menace (1999), Attack of the Clones (2002) and Revenge of the Sith (2005).
The official announcement about Ewan McGregor's Star Wars drama series is likely being kept for Disney's annual D23 Expo that will take place from 23 August in Anaheim, California in the United States.
Ewan McGregor was originally in talks for a series of Star Wars feature films that would revolve around the legendary Jedi Knight character of Obi-Wan Kenobi but that plan was scuppered after Disney and Lucasfilm's stand-alone Han Solo origin story, Solo: A Star Wars Story, was a box office disappointment in the United States and internationally.
The Obi-Wan Kenobi series would be the third live-action Star Wars drama series commissioned by Disney from Lucasfilm for its Disney+ subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service, following The Mandalorian from Jon Favreau starring Pedro Pascal that will debut on Disney+ at launch.
Disney also commissioned an as-yet-untitled series based on the Cassian Andor character introduced in the Rogue One film, with Diego Luna who will be reprising his role in the prequel series from that film, alongside Alan Tudyk as the droid K-2S0. Stephen Schiff is the showrunner.
Disney+ won't be available in South Africa or Africa as a streaming service until at least 2022 according to Disney's investors' presentation it did earlier this year.
A new hope however exists that Disney will in the meantime while it doesn't have a presence in sub-Saharan Africa as a streaming service, distribute and make the original programming created for Disney+ available internationally to buyers like MultiChoice, M-Net (DStv 101), and possibly even MultiChoice's own video streaming service, Showmax.
