As Solo: A Star Wars Story heads towards the cinema this week on the back of some decent but underwhelming reviews, the future of Lucasfilm and the spinoffs from Star Wars hang in the balance.

For the moment, there's been nothing resembling official word on any future spinoffs beyond vague aspirations from Kathleen Kennedy and Lucasfilm. However, there's been endless rumours for the past year and a half about an Obi-Wan Kenobi spinoff and it looks like TMZ of all places has caught the scoop on what's happening.

Per their report from an alleged production bulletin, Stephen Daldry - who previously made The Hours, Billy Elliot, Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close and several banner episodes of Netflix's The Crown - is the director to take on Obi-Wan: A Star Wars Story but lists nothing in terms of casting. There is, however, a synopsis to go along with the bulletin and claims that Obi-Wan comes out of hiding after tensions run high between local farmers on Tatooine and the Sand People and a brutal war chief - all so he can protect young Luke Skywalker from them.

Unconfirmed rumours in the past claimed that Sam Esmail of Mr. Robot fame was penning the screenplay, but TMZ's source has no name attached to the screenplay and - more pointedly - has nothing on Ewan McGregor reprising his role as Obi-Wan Kenobi. For his part, McGregor's been more than open about his desire to return to Star Wars and his performance in the prequel trilogy was one of its few high points.

Stephen Daldry, on the other hand, was previously announced as the director to take on the big-screen adaptation of Wicked in 2019 and a release date of December 20th, 2019. So far, there's been no word on anything to do with it beyond the initial announcement and the talk is that the entire production of Wicked has stalled due to casting difficulties. If the release date of December 2019 is still on, it'd mean Daldry's dancecard is booked as the production bulletin TMZ is touting as gospel claims that shooting on Obi-Wan: A Star Wars Story in Spring 2019.

Whether or not TMZ's source is correct remains to be seen, but given how Star Wars Celebration - where the majority of Star Wars-related announcements are made - isn't until April 2019, there's a decent chance these rumours will remain rumours for the time being.

 

Via TMZ