Hossein Amini

"So, for Obi Wan's character, he has a lot to adjust to given the loss of his close friends and the order that he believed in. It felt like a really exciting opportunity to explore a different side of a franchise that I always loved and I've always loved it because of its spiritual aspects as well as its fun and action elements, it seems to work on way more than one level which isn't always true for those big franchises."

―Hossein Amini^[2]

Hossein Amini (born January 18, 1966) is an Iranian-born British filmmaker best known for The Wings of the Dove, Drive and The Two Faces of January.^[1] He was slated to write the live-action limited series Obi-Wan Kenobi. However, in January 2020, Kathleen Kennedy was concerned with the direction of the scripts. She shut down production and replaced Amini with Joby Harold.

Biography[]

Early life[]

When Stephen Amini was a kid, he found that there were many aspects of Star Wars that appealed to him, and he enjoyed the animated series and books. Obi-Wan Kenobi was one of his favorite characters because he spans throughout the prequels and the original trilogy and Amini found him to be different from the other characters. He loved Star Wars because he had always been interested in different religions including the notion of the samurai that he always loved. He also loved the spiritual aspects as well as the fun and action elements.^[2]

Obi-Wan Kenobi television series[]

Hossesin Amini was initially contacted by Stephen Daldry, the original director for the Obi-Wan Kenobi anthology film, and they chatted about joining the project. He then spoke with Lucasfilm Ltd., and he said it was more of a conversation than a pitch, which he was very gracious for. Amini had been attached to the project as far back as 2017.^[2] The film eventually became a television series^[3] written by Amini^[4] and directed by Deborah Chow.^[3] The series was originally going to take place eight years after the events of Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith.^[5]

Amini spent a long time doing research for the project, which he tried to keep as varied as possible. He felt he had a certain responsibility to the fans, writers, and comic book artists that have contributed to Star Wars. He also felt it was important to be respectful and he wanted to know the project like he would a piece of history where he would be studying the characters, what's come before and what's come after as well. Amini researched science fiction and the spiritual aspects of Star Wars. He read several books about crisis and extraordinary bits of anthropological subjects and he received inspiration from everything. Amini also read what director George Lucas read from The Hero with a Thousand Faces and learned from the studies Lucas did from Samurai costumes and weapons.^[2]

Amini was attracted to telling a character story as well as the situation or crisis that Kenobi was in. He found the show to be fascinating in the sense that it takes place in a period full of change and hardship. He found the show to be an exciting opportunity to explore a different side of the franchise that he always loved. He discovered that the show seemed to work on way more than one level. The show's time period was a difficult journey for Amini to explore because there was much internal and external conflict, which is what he looks for in a story. Amini thought that the show worked better as a six-episode limited series because he needed time to explore Kenobi as a character and the state of the galaxy, which included politics and the vastness of the Empire.^[2]

Amini wrote with character as the first priority and the plot came second. Amini worked with the Lucasfilm Story Group to make sure that the show fits into the wider Star Wars canon. He found them to be incredibly helpful to the process and called them an "inspirational safety net." He said the tone wasn't particularly affected by the trailer for The Mandalorian that he saw.^[2] On September 27, 2019, StarWars.com announced that Deborah Chow would direct the Obi-Wan Kenobi television series and the series would be written by Amini. Amini, Chow, and Ewan McGregor would serve as executive producers alongside Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy.^[4] In January, 2020, Kennedy announced that an overhaul for the series was in order. She temporarily shut down production, and hired Joby Harold to take over from Amini.^[3] Despite leaving the project, Amini still received writing and story credits for four episodes of the season.^[6] Harold and Chow then crafted a new story that took place 10 years after Revenge of the Sith.^[3]