Major spoilers follow. This article also assumes that you are up-to-date with all things Star Wars (so eleven films and three boxsets, but don’t worry about the books and computer games). Else, what are you doing here, exactly?
Though it was originally intended to be the third Star Wars standalone film, following on from the success of 2016’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and the box office bomb that was 2018’s Solo: A Star Wars Story, Obi-Wan Kenobi has now been re-imagined as a six-part TV mini-series for Disney Plus.
The show comes in the wake of two seasons of The Mandalorian and one of The Book Of Boba Fett. Set in the bit between Episode III: The Revenge of The Sith, and Episode IV: A New Hope, Obi-Wan Kenobi features – you guessed it – everyone’s favourite bearded Jedi, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and everyone’s favourite bad guy, Darth “dun dun d-dun” Vader. Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen reprise their roles from the prequels.
McGregor, who swore off Star Wars after the bruising experience of the prequels, has been tempted back for this new run, which begins on Disney Plus on May 27.
Ahead of the show's debut, and to celebrate the fact that today is May 4, we thought we'd get excitement and round up six things we want to see from Obi-Wan Kenobi on Disney Plus...
1. Something better actually happen...
Obi-Wan Kenobi takes place 10 years after the events of Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. Baby Leia has been hidden on Alderaan, and baby Luke on Tatooine with step-uncle Owen and step-aunt Beru Lars. Kenobi has retired on Tatooine to keep an eye on toddler Luke. We know from Episode IV: A New Hope that Luke grows up safely. Old man Kenobi doesn’t sound like he’s been up to much. So how do you plot a series set within the decades when Kenobi sits at home on Tatooine, twiddling his Jedi thumbs? We shall see...
2. Let's keep Darth Vader focused on the job...
The Jedi formerly known as Anakin Skywalker’s career is on the up. In Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine (aka Darth Sidius aka The Emperor) promotes him to Darth Vader. Construction of The Death Star is well under way. Vader’s personal life, less so. His wife, Padmé dies in childbirth – just as Anakin’s visions predicted – although he is unaware she gave birth to twins. Health-wise, he’s not doing great. He’s had his arms and legs chopped off by Kenobi, who leaves him half burnt to death on Coruscant. Let’s just hope Vader doesn’t let his personal feelings get in the way of his work – the very thing that led him to The Dark Side in the first place.
3. Take the action off-world from Tatooine...
At the beginning of the trailer, Kenobi says: “The fight is done. We lost …” Presumably he’s speaking about the slayings at the Jedi temple in Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith? Vader has constructed his castle on Mustafar in the Outer Rim. Vader now has two objectives: to locate Kenobi, and to locate Padme’s spirit in the afterlife and bring her back to life. We know this doesn’t happen, as we are yet to meet Mrs Vader. Presumably it is Vader who has sent the Sith Inquisitors to Tatooine, to nose around Mos Eisley and Anchorhead looking for Kenobi. Kenobi’s job seems to mainly involve watching the young Luke through a pair of binoculars, which you’d never get away with these days. What takes Kenobi off Tatooine remains to be seen...
4. Let Darth Vader survive without his helmet on
Vader was badly burnt at the end of Episode III: The Revenge Of The Sith, rendering him little more than a toasted torso. We now see he is using a Bacta Tank (as used by Boba Fett in The Book Of Boba Fett) to heal. Vader is human, so presumably he still has to take off helmet to eat (and sleep?). Unless he just pours Intergalactic Cup-A-Soup down his air vent? We learn in The Empire Strikes Back that Vader can only remove his helmet in his special hyperbaric oxygen chamber. Some think that Vader *can* breath without his helmet, if he – you know – uses The Force. Hopefully this means that Vader will be able to walk around without his helmet on. It’ll be a bit weird if he’s helmeted up and speaking as Christensen and not as the iconic James Earl Jones.
5. Give Ewan McGregor a beard-trimmer
Pedro Pascal's Mandalorian is cool. He struts around the galaxy, barely removing his helmet or speaking. A New Hope’s Kenobi is a greying old man who doesn’t do much more than buy Luke Skywalker an intergalactic bus ticket and then die in the most rubbish way possible. (“If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine,” he famously says, but then doesn’t.) Some found Episodes I – III’s McGregor’s Guinness-inspired accent – and Richard Stilgoe-esque beard (ask your parents) – annoying. The good news is that McGregor seems to have at least trimmed his beard this time around.
6. Don’t ruin things with guest cameos...
Guest CGI cameos are all the rage in Star Wars of late. We had the young Princess Leia at the end of Solo: A Star Wars Story, and the young Luke Skywalker in The Mandalorian and The Book Of Boba Fett. So, who could CGI cameo in Obi-Wan Kenobi? Luke and Leia are 10, so no dice for young CGI Mark Hamill or Carrie Fisher. Han Solo is a bit older, but who’s going to recognise / care about a cameo from Solo: A Star Wars Story’s Alden Ehrenreich? Who else classic Star Wars does that leave? Say someone did Yoda?
Obi-Wan Kenobi starts with a double episode on Disney Plus on May 27.
