July 2024 · 5 minute read

“Obi-Wan Kenobi” ran for six episodes on Disney+, but for many fans and critics that was simply too long. While everyone was happy to see Ewan McGregor back as the iconic Jedi, not every “Star Wars” fans agreed on the pacing of the story or the main plotline that sent Obi-Wan on an adventure to save a young Princess Leia from Darth Vader. One “Star Wars” fan, Kai Patterson, has gone viral on social media for editing the Disney+ series into a single two-hour-and-30-minute movie.

“The ‘Obi-Wan’ show, in my opinion, suffered from things that were easily fixable in the script and in the edit,” Patterson writes about his  decision to create the fan edit, which is streaming now on his personal website. “Awkward pacing, whole scenes that ultimately amounted to nothing, goofy dialogue and directing choices, so I decided to take matters into my own hands and change what I could. I want to be very clear, this is my own artistic interpretation of how these scenes could be strung together to make something that works better for me personally.”

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Patterson is not selling his version to make money, and he encouraged anyone who watches the fan edit to also have a Disney+ account so “we’re supporting all the original artists on this show by not letting this become a means of pirating.” Patterson’s video on TikTok announcing the fan edit has earned 1.5 million views and counting.

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The decision to create a film version out of the “Obi-Wan Kenobi” limited series brings the project back to its origins. The show was originally conceived as a feature film, and Lucasfilm intended to create a full movie trilogy centered on McGregor reprising the character. Screenwriter Stuart Beattie had “story by” and/or writing credits on multiple “Obi-Wan” episodes, but he told The Direct he was only credited since he was planning the first movie in the intended “Obi-Wan” movie trilogy.

“I wrote the film that they based the show on,” Beattie said. “I spent like a year, year-and-a-half working on it. And then, when the decision was made not to make any more spin-off films after ‘Solo’ came out, I left the project and went on to other things. Joby [Harold] came on and took my scripts and turned it from two hours into six. So, I did not work with them at all, I just got credit for the episodes because it was all my stuff.”

Development on the Obi-Wan movie was killed after the box office failure of “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” and the creative team at Lucasfilm pivoted instead to making a series for Disney+.

“It was ‘Solo’ that changed the direction of the system,” Beattie said. “I like ‘Solo,’ personally, but it hadn’t made a lot of money… it certainly crushed us. Devastated, absolutely devastated. But, that’s the business, you know, highs and lows.”

All six episodes of “Obi-Wan Kenobi” are now streaming on Disney+.

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