The Empire Strikes Back...to Ireland.
Comic-Con might claim to be heaven for film and TV fans but it's actually Belfast. Why? Well, two of the biggest franchises in the world have made the city their home. After the massive success of Game of Thrones, there's a Death Star-sized production that's going to replace it.
The Belfast Telegraph are reporting that the standalone Obi-Wan Kenobi film will be shot there in 2019 and that Stephen Daldry will be filming in the city's Paint Hall studios in the Titanic Quarter.
That's no moon. It's a state of the art film studio!
They report that: "Staff at the city's Paint Hall studios in the Titanic Quarter have been told that once production on the final series of Game Of Thrones finishes later this year, the legendary sci-fi saga will be coming to town."
Despite the fact that he's not directly involved with the new Star Wars films, George Lucas was recently spotted in Belfast and it's believed that the Star Wars creator was looking at the studio before giving it his final approval.
As for the spin-off film that revolves around the Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi - Ewan McGregor has been openly talking about reprising the role.
After being nominated for a Golden Glove for Fargo, the actor gave an interview with
The Hollywood Reporter and said: "There’s a lot of talk and I’d be happy to play him (Obi-Wan) again but I don’t know anything more than you do.”
In a previous interview with
EW, McGregor said that he's got unfinished business with the role.
“There’s no official offer, and I haven’t met them about it or anything. But I’ve always said that I’d be happy to do it if they wanted to do it. It would be a good segue between the last episode of the prequels and the new episodes. I think they’ve got films to make until the 2020s, so I don’t think it’s going to happen soon if it happens at all," he said.
It's also worthing noting that McGregor is currently training and he's rocking a beard.
https://twitter.com/starwarstuff/status/950013724659781632
Last week, it was announced that the Game of Thrones showrunners, Benioff and Weiss, were creating new Star Wars film. Of course, both men are very familiar with Northern Ireland having filmed all eight seasons of the show there, so could we be seeing more Star Wars films being shot in Ireland? In Obi-Wan's immortal words:"The Force will be with you, always."
