May 25, 2022
Disney+ is taking us back to a galaxy far, far away with its
upcoming limited series Obi-Wan Kenobi, with Ewan
McGregor reprising the titular role alongside Hayden Christiansen's
Darth Vader. Star Wars superfan Joby Harold explains what drew him
to writing the six-episode series for Disney and Lucasfilm: "I
always thought [Obi-Wan] was this great, unexplored character when
it came to canon because there is that gap between what Ewan had
done with the character and what sir Alec Guinness did with the
character... I was just, as a fan, eager to see what they were
going to do. When I got to sort of be a part of it and figure out
what they had done and what they were looking to explore, it just
seemed like a really exciting opportunity."
Harold also shares the screenwriting advice that's stuck with him
throughout his career: "I had a screenwriting professor named Lou
Hunter who would always say at the end of his correspondences,
'Write on' ... and he would say, 'You're not good until your
seventh script.' And I was like, 'I appreciate you saying that, but
I feel like I've got this figured out. I know what I'm doing,' and
it's just crazy to me how true that was, and I think a lot of
writers get caught up in rewriting their first or second or third
scripts, just trying to complete that first thought... writing and
rewriting different projects is so important to finding the
vocabulary of writing."
