Kenobi Rewritten Due To Mandalorian Similarities, Original Story Revealed

screenrant.com:

A new report reveals the original story for the Obi-Wan Kenobi series, which was far too similar toThe Mandalorian's narrative. After years of waiting, Ewan McGregor's return to Star Wars was officially confirmed during 2019's D-23 Expo. However, even after that, making the Obi-Wan Kenobi show wasn't exactly a walk in the park, with its story getting some major overhauls just months before its production was supposed to kick off.

Originally conceived as part of Lucasfilm's Star Wars anthology of movies, the project was reworked to be a small-screen endeavor on the heels of Solo: A Star Wars Story's failure at the box office. At the same time, Disney was also pushing for their own streaming service, Disney+, so it made sense to turn the new Obi-Wan Kenobi narrative into a show instead. But after the initial announcement that McGregor would be back, the series continued to encounter certain hurdles. One of its biggest issues was that its story was too similar to Jon Favreau's The Mandalorian.

Related: Obi-Wan Kenobi's New Villain Explains His Darth Vader Rematch

Now, a brand new report claims what exactly happened behind the scenes that caused Lucasfilm to changeObi-Wan Kenobi's story. According to THR, citing their anonymous sources, Ray Park's Darth Maul was supposed to appear in the show as one of the villains. Obi-Wan, meanwhile, was meant to protect a young Luke Skywalker from his old nemesis, as well as other bad guys who were after the future Jedi. Director Deborah Chow, who directed episodes for The Mandalorian season 1, consulted with Favreau and his creative partner, Dave Filoni, about this arc, and the pair raised concerns that the narrative would be another Lone Wolf and Cub-like story, too similar to what