It's been a heck of a week for Disney+ series Obi-Wan. On Thursday, we reported via two independent sources the Obi-Wan crew assembled at Pinewood Studios in London had been sent home with the crew told the show would be delayed "indefinitely." Those sources also told Collider Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy was reportedly not happy with the Obi-Wan scripts and opted to put the show's production on pause so those scripts could be reworked with the goal to resume production later in the year. Now, Obi-Wan series star Ewan McGregor is going on record to provide further commentary on the situation, including confirmation of the new filming start date.

Speaking with Variety at a Birds of Prey fan event in Los Angeles on Thursday night, McGregor confirmed a 2021 start date. He told Variety, "I think we start shooting early next year as opposed to summer this year. I think the scripts are great. They’re in really good shape. They want them to be better. I think we keep our same airdate. All good," and went on to further keep the cool by downplaying any possibility of dramatics by remarking, "I didn’t realize until we got here tonight and everybody is going, 'Oh, my god!' But it’s not really as dramatic as it might seem."

In a similar yet slightly more colorful comment to the Associated Press (via Entertainment Weekly), McGregor expanded the "it's not that dramatic" line, explaining,

"It’s not been put on hold, it’s just been pushed back a little bit. The scripts are excellent and they just want them to be better. So we just pushed it back, but it’s not — it very dramatic, it would seem, online, there’s all kinds of shit online about it, but it’s only just slid back a bit. We’re still shooting it, I think it will still be aired when it was meant to be and I’m really excited about it. It’ll be fun to play again."

Speaking with IGN, McGregor went a step further, telling the site,

"Now that Episode IX  [Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker] came out and everyone at Lucasfilm has got more time to spend on the writing, they felt they wanted more time to write the episodes. I’ve read about 80, 90 percent of what they’ve written so far, and it’s really, really good. Instead of shooting this August, they just want to start shooting in January, that’s all. Nothing more dramatic than that."

So, for now it seems like McGregor's comments reaffirm what our sources told us about the Obi-Wan production delay this week. Additionally, at time of reporting Deborah Chow, who directed some of the most impressive and engaging episodes of The Mandalorian Season 1, is still attached to the series as director. The Hollywood Reporter weighed in with a report saying Hossein Amini may not longer be attached to write as they look for a new screenwriter to work on the scripts and scale back the series from six episodes to four. Per a source to THR, the "Kenobi story treaded similar ground as Mandalorian, seeing the Jedi master lending a protective hand to a young Luke and perhaps even a young Leia."

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