Last year, Omega Underground first revealed Lucasfilm’s plans to potentially begin filming Kenobi: A Star Wars Story around January 2019. Making it their 2020 Star Wars release as mentioned previously by Disney’s Bob Iger that the 2020 Star Wars film would be an anthology installment.
A new report coming from TheBelfastTelegraph is suggesting Kenobi could be eyeing some production time in Belfast, Northern Ireland (UK). Reiterating our own reporting that filming would begin next year.
Star Wars creator George Lucas was in Belfast before Christmas checking out locations for a new stand-alone film centering on the life of Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi – with Ewan McGregor reprising the role he first played in 1999 prequel The Phantom Menace.
Ireland was previously used in both Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, so the studio has used the area for certain shots specifically for Skywalker’s island.
Although, there are few things that have us questioning the reporting.
First, they state that George Lucas is the one doing the location scouting in November, last time we checked he was retired and no longer working for Lucasfilm after selling it to Disney.
The other aspect is that they’re suggesting it could be shot at Paint Hall Studio, but Pinewood UK is the stage home for all Star Wars films and if they’re looking for exterior shots, Ireland is a little too green to double for Tatooine. Paint Hall is best known for used for Game of Thrones.
We’ve assumed that places like Death Valley/California or Spain (use for Solo) would be used instead for the desert planet instead.
It’s possible that this Belfast shoot could actually be for Star Wars: Episode IX, and not Kenobi. There have been rumblings that Abrams was eyeing Argyll, Scotland for this summer and Paint Hall might be a good stage replacement as it’s been reported that Scotland is losing film business due to the lack of stage space available.
A director and screenwriter have yet to be announced by Lucasfilm and they have yet to even to confirm the project at all.
Then again, Omega Underground has been hearing rumblings of the project for a year now (Mr. Robot’s Sam Esmail was mentioned as a potential screenwriter and might have taken a meeting for it) and HollywoodReporter revealed back in August that The Crown’s Stephen Daldry was being eyed to direct.
Kenobi is without a release date but we assume it could be ready in May or December in 2020.
SOURCE: BELFAST TELEGRAPH