Deborah Chow to helm Obi-Wan Kenobi series

Chow, who directed episodes of the upcoming "Star Wars" TV series "The Mandalorian", will direct the series featuring the popular character Obi-Wan Kenobi, reports hollywoodreporter.com.

"We really wanted to select a director who is able to explore both the quiet determination and rich mystique of Obi-Wan in a way that folds seamlessly into the Star Wars saga," said Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy.

"Based on her phenomenal work developing our characters in 'The Mandalorian', I'm absolutely confident Deborah is the right director to tell this story," Kennedy added.

Chow has proved her mettle time and again. She has directed and worked on shows such as "American Gods", "Better Call Saul", "Lost in Space", "Jessica Jones", "Reign" and "Mr Robot".

The series is written by Hossein Amini.

Lucasfilm is making the series for Disney+, the stand-alone streaming service, which will be launched internationally on November 12. The news of the series was announced at D23 Expo in August this year with McGregor making a surprise appearance.

McGregor played the character in the three "Star Wars" prequels "The Phantom Menace", "Attack of the Clones" and "Revenge of the Sith". There was a talk about Obi-Wan stand-alone film for quite some time.

McGregor said it has been four years of denying or putting off questions about reprising the young Obi-Wan. He is glad that he can now proudly tell everyone that "yes we are doing it".

Kennedy had revealed that all the scripts for the series have been written and they will start filming next year.

In the original 1977 movie, Kenobi is seen as a desert-dwelling, war-weary hermit who later proves to be a wise and powerful warrior. He briefly mentors a young Luke Skywalker before being cut down by Darth Vader, his former pupil.

This will be third live-action "Star Wars" series at Disney+, after "The Mandalorian" and a prequel series centred on Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) and K-2SO (Alan Tudyk).

( With inputs from IANS )