10 Failed Star Wars Movies (And Why They Didn't Happen)

5. The Obi-Wan Kenobi Solo Movie

Obi Wan Kenobi Revenge of the Sith
Lucasfilm

The Movie

When Disney acquired Lucasfilm in 2012, the studio - understandably - wanted to get as much out of its investment as possible, and to that end, it was soon announced that spinoff films centred on Han Solo and Boba Fett were in early development.

A few years later, and Star Wars fans rejoiced at the news that Ewan McGregor's Obi-Wan Kenobi would also be joining this cinematic spinoff party, with Oscar-nominated director Stephen Daldry in talks to oversee the project.

The film's story was rumoured to involve Obi-Wan watching over Luke Skywalker on Tatooine, only for him to come out of hiding amidst rising tensions between a group of local farmers, and a tribe of Tusken Raiders.

Why It Didn't Happen

After the financial failure of Solo: A Star Wars Story, Lucasfilm and Disney pumped the brakes on their standalone Star Wars movies, which included Obi-Wan.

On the plus side though, it wasn't a straight-up cancellation - it was a rework. Obi-Wan Kenobi was instead built as a Disney+ series, with certain elements being taken from the movie pitch and adapted into this new small-screen take.

The show received a mixed reception, with fans later heaping praise on a two-hour fan edit that shortened the six-episode series into a movie - which is funny considering that it was supposed to be a movie in the first place.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!