May 4, 2023 3.00 pm This story is over 13 months old

Star Wars Day: When the Force almost descended on Boston

Tabloid rumours caused a frenzy, but Ewan McGregor squashed hopes
An image inspired by the news that Star Wars could have been filming a spin-off series in Boston. | Photo: Christopher Lewis
By Local Democracy Reporter

This Star Wars Day (May the 4th be with you, of course), we look back to reports of a spin-off Disney+ show of the sci-fi saga being filmed in Boston, Lincolnshire – which sadly turned out to be an unfortunate misunderstanding.

It’s 2020, and anticipation is building for Lucasfilm’s latest sci-fi instalment – Star Wars: Kenobi, which eventually became simply known as Obi-Wan Kenobi when it was released in 2022.

It was a Star Wars spin-off following Obi-Wan Kenobi, a Jedi Master played by Ewan McGregor in the modern Star Wars trilogy.

| Screenshot: Teaser PRO

Filming locations were ‘revealed’ in a post by the Film & Television Industry Alliance on productionlist.com, which initially stated that the Disney+ series would be filmed in London and Boston, Massachusetts in January 2021.

However, CBS Boston in America had reported that this post was amended to say Boston UK rather than Massachusetts in the US.

Could it be? Was Obi-Wan about to bring the Force to Lincolnshire? Alas, we had to hear it from the horse’s mouth for our hopes to be dashed.

Speaking to Eddie Izzard for a marathon fundraiser the comedian was doing, Ewan McGregor discussed The Mandalorian and the Obi-Wan Kenobi series.

He, regrettably, put to bed the rumours that Lincolnshire would be a filming location for the Kenobi series, after his dad had told him of a “tabloid expose” saying the film would be shot in “some bizarre town somewhere” – referring to Boston.

McGregor said in February 2021: “We start making it in the late spring and we’re gonna be shooting it here in LA.

“My dad was sending me links, saying, ‘I thought you were shooting it in LA’ because there’s another tabloid expose that we’re shooting it in some bizarre town somewhere.

“Then we’re meant to be making it in Boston and then we’re meant to be making it, no, it wasn’t Boston, it was Boston, England. But we’re not. We’re shooting it in LA.”

Alas, the Star Wars presence was not felt in Lincolnshire this time around, but with the franchise consistently evolving with new spin-offs and series, never say never.

Here’s hoping Obi-Wan says “Hello there” to Lincolnshire at some point in the future.

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