Jedi master Obi-Wan Kenobi will be the focus of the new film, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Stephen Daldry, the Oscar-nominated director of Billy Elliot and The Hours is in early talks to direct. If signed, Daldry will also oversee development and writing.
Because the project is in the earliest stages, there is no script or information on who might play the title role. Academy Award winner Alec Guinness (The Bridge Over the River Kwai) played the desert-dwelling hermit in the original Star Wars trilogy. Ewan McGregor played the younger incarnation of the powerful Jedi in the prequel trilogy.
The film will be the second standalone based on a character from the original movies. A Ron Howard directed film about scruffy-looking nerf herder Han Solo is slated to be in theaters on May 25, 2018 (see "Best in Shows – Q2 2018").