If you’ve been following Brexit negotiations carefully you may already know of a potential Star Wars film your American friends may not know is coming. There are not many people who could have predicted the nation’s exit from the European Union could break potential Jedi news, but I suppose you should know to expect just about anything in 2018 at this point.
Boris Johnson, an MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip since 2015, was a huge player in the Brexit talks that led to a vote to leave the EU sometime in the future. That time may be soon, and Johnson — who took a position he then later left in Theresa May’s British government — is a strong, if not always reliable, source of conservative, nation-first quotes about the topic.
Johnson spoke at the Democratic Unionist Party conference in Belfast earlier in the week about, of course, Brexit. And hidden in that speech, which is below, is a tiny bit of Star Wars news about a potential Obi Wan Kenobi film.
The biggest-grossing movie around the world of 2017 was Star Wars. Whatever it was called, it was the latest edition of Star Wars. But where does George Lucas propose to make the follow-up biopic of the life of Obi-Wan Kenobi? Anybody know? Here in Northern Ireland.
There are a lot of reasons to doubt Johnson’s quote here as a scoop. In fact, if you’ve been following Brexit you know that not believing Johnson in the first place is often an important point of view here. But, more importantly, we already knew there was a movie in the works as early as early as mid 2017. But when Disney didn’t see the returns (and reviews) it wanted on Solo: A Star Wars Story, the standalone origin story of charming antihero Han Solo, plans for future Star Wars standalone films about Boba Fett and, yes, Obi Wan, were reportedly pushed back.
That Disney point is the other key issue here: George Lucas isn’t in charge anymore, Disney is. That’s been great news when you consider Lucas’ midichlorian infatuation and how he wanted to incorporate them more into some other Star Wars titles. But it also means that Johnson’s man on the inside might not actually be able to make the call when it comes to filming locations. There’s some thought that Lucas may be taking a more hands-on approach to Star Wars films these days, but quite frankly that might not even be his call.
So while this press conference may be of particular interest to Ewan McGregor, there may not be much there for the rest of us on this side of the pond. Johnson might just be full of hot air.
(via Slate)
