After a lot of rumors, and high hopes, it looks like the Obi-Wan Kenobi Star Wars project is taking a big step forward. Come in for our report!

[Update: Incredibly happy to add to this report that Deadline, Variety, and The Hollywood Reporter have all independently confirmed our story from this morning. Hopefully this means we’ll get some official announcement from Lucasfilm sooner rather than later.

Original report follows below.]

Today’s report won’t likely come as a surprise to many people, but it is nice to hear. Rumors of an Obi-Wan Kenobi related project have been circulating since Disney bought Lucasfilm back in 2013. While it seemed to have started life as a standalone film, recent reports are that we’ll see Obi-Wan come back as a Disney+ series…Which is what I’ve heard as well.

So what’s new? According to two separate sources, I’ve heard that Ewan McGregor has actually put pen to paper and inked a contract to return as the iconic Jedi Master. I heard word of this recently, but I was sitting on it until, out of the blue, a second source reached out to me (I hadn’t gone digging on this one) saying the exact same thing.

Again, this shouldn’t come as a surprise considering how open McGregor has been in his desire to return to the Star Wars franchise. What’s interesting to me, however, is the timing. While development on the Obi-Wan project has been in the early stages since the beginning of this year (according to StarWarsNewsNet), locking in a contract means they’re really moving forward on it.

D23 is just a week away, with Disney already promising a more in depth look at their future live-action slate and more Disney+ information. It may not be outside the realm of possibility they were eager to get the contract signed now in order to make some sort of announcement for the show (much like how Marvel signed up Simu Liu for Shang Chi just before SDCC).

That’s speculation on my part, based on the timing of this, and something at least one of my sources seems to feel as well. So don’t take a D23 announcement as gospel at this point. The news here is that Ewan McGregor has signed a new Star Wars contract with LFL, and we’ll be seeing him back as Kenobi at some point!