Obi-Wan Kenobi

In fact, the Jedi Master has much to reckon with in the new series, including his failure to save Anakin Skywalker from the dark side and the lure of the Sith.

Obi-Wan still hopes to train Luke as a Jedi one day, but being a member of that ancient order is very dangerous in the era in which the new series takes place. If you’re wondering, the events of Rebels kick off in 5 BBY, four years after Obi-Wan Kenobi. What else do we know about this point in the timeline? A Galactic Empire ruled by Sith lords, dark side hunters set loose on the galaxy, and Jedi fugitives hiding or running for their lives. Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi, the six-episode limited series on Disney+, brings back the fan-favorite Jedi Master but at a very different point in his life. The series stars Ewan McGregor as an older Obi-Wan who has seen better days.

We look back at the Star Wars history of Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, originated by Alec Guinness and played in 'Obi-Wan Kenobi' by Ewan McGregor.

It has already been established that some characters from the animated “Star Wars Rebels” will be playing a part in the limited Obi-Wan series. While any crossover seems unlikely, viewers will just have to wait and see if any other familiar faces appear in “Obi-Wan Kenobi.” But McGregor in the prequels is “all the things that you would not have imagined Obi-Wan could have been”: “Alec Guinness’ Obi-Wan is the finished article. Now known as the Darth Vader, the character’s shadow is felt across the series. McGregor himself noted during the Lucasfilm presentation at Star Wars Celebration on Thursday that there seemed to be no love for the prequel films at the time of their release. An unexpected detour during a mission brings them to Tatooine, where they meet the young, exceptionally Force-sensitive Anakin Skywalker.

West Coast viewers will be able to stream the first two episodes of the show, starring Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen, starting at 9 p.m. PT. Originally, ...

After Joby Harold (“Army of the Dead”) was hired to take over, the six-episode series was delayed again due to the pandemic. The Disney+ series is the culmination of years of planning at Lucasfilm to revive McGregor’s performance as Obi-Wan from the “Star Wars” prequel trilogy. early,” the tweet reads. The actor finally confirmed the news to great fanfare at the D23 Expo in August 2019, but a planned shoot in 2020 with “The Mandalorian” director Deborah Chow was delayed when the original head writer, Hossein Amini (“The Alienist”), left the production. The news was announced in a tweet from the official “Star Wars” account. “Start streaming the first two episodes TONIGHT at 9 p.m. PT on @Disneyplus.”

Obi-Wan Kenobi is coming to Disney+ with a two-part premiere, and it's a doozy of a series.

If Mandalorian is a low key ode to the episodic action shows of the ’80s, the TV equivalent of dumping out all the leftover action figures and smashing them together, then Obi-Wan Kenobi is the first true prestige drama of the franchise. There are plenty of elements from the prequels at play here, depicted as they all move towards the era of the original trilogy. More so than the previous Disney+ originals, Obi-Wan Kenobi is the one with the highest hurdle to clear, and the one burdened with two trilogies of continuity, as well as the overwhelming and insurmountable expectations of generations of fans. Somehow Obi-Wan avoids the prequel curse; we know this is not old Ben’s time to die, and the same goes for many other prequel actors reprising their roles for the series. How in the galaxy would this series fare against all of that? This is the central issue at the heart of not only Obi-Wan Kenobi the character, but Obi-Wan Kenobi the show.

The first two episodes of the series were initially scheduled for release Friday, May 27, pushed back from an original release date of May 25. Obi-Wan Kenobi ...

Obi-Wan Kenobi finds Ewan McGregor revisiting his performance of the titular role, while Hayden Christensen returns as Anakin Skywalker. Both actors originally performed together in the roles for the early 2000s Star Wars prequels. According to Variety, the release comes after fans attending the Star Wars Celebration convention in Anaheim, Calif. “were surprised with a premiere screening of the show” earlier that evening. The first two episodes of the series were initially scheduled for release Friday, May 27, pushed back from an original release date of May 25.

The first two episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi are live on Disney+, and they are full of surprises.

Not a lot of people have the capacity to recover from having a white hot laser blade run through their solar plexus, so it seems that the fair bet is that he is dead and not coming back, but we’ll just have to wait for future episodes to find out if that’s actually the case. Hopefully it’s something he continues to not only in more Obi-Wan Kenobi episodes, but in more of the franchise’s shows on Disney+. Obi-Wan Kenobi does start his show living on Tatooine and keeping an eye on young Luke (along with the kid’s Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru), but not only is there a surprising amount of action that is set away from the desert planet, Obi-Wan ends up leaving it after the first episode. If it ever seemed weird to you that Obi-Wan would spend all of his time looking after Luke Skywalker and not Leia Organa, Obi-Wan Kenobi has now effectively addressed that issue by making Leia a much more prominent character in the show’s first two episodes. Obi-Wan Kenobi is set 10 years after the events of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, which is to say that (from his perspective) it’s been a decade since Order 66 saw the annihilation of the Jedi and Anakin Skywalker turned to the Dark Side and had to be killed. The annual Star Wars Celebration convention kicked off this afternoon – with big reveals including a debut trailer for Andor and a sneak peek at The Mandalorian Season 3 – but you don't have to be in Anaheim, California to enjoy all of the awesomeness.

Fans at Star Wars Celebration shared their thoughts on the first two episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi.

While no spoilers have made it to the public yet, Lucasfilm and Disney surprised fans by releasing the first two episodes on Disney+ at 9PM PST instead of its usual midnight slot. "Obi-Wan Kenobi first reactions, Ewan McGregor brings the emotion as an older Kenobi. His eye acting is next level. "The first 2 episodes of Kenobi are amazing. "Obi-Wan Kenobi gets off to a great start. A brilliant artist." With this series having been in development for most of the past three years, anticipation is at an all-time high to see the former Jedi Master take the spotlight once again.

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It’s the sort of character and performance that would usually deserve its own spin-off, even if it didn’t exist in the world of modern Star Wars, where every single character who ever appears onscreen is all but guaranteed a full series about their origin story. In the prequel series they often overwhelmed McGregor’s performance, but here, he wears them lightly, letting some of his natural charisma seep through. The series actually starts to justify its own existence. The story goes that this series started life as a film. Post-Lucas Star Wars exists almost exclusively to bulk out thin gruel, joining various dots that didn’t need to be joined, for the delight of a quickly ageing fanbase. Kenobi left Anakin Skywalker for dead a decade ago and, realistically, it’s another decade before the events of Star Wars: A New Hope.

The last seconds of the two-episode premiere finally delivered what fans have been clamoring for -- a helmetless Darth Vader.

Well, unless there’s a flashback, this is the Vader we’re going to learn to love to hate. There must be some Force connection still left between the two, because as soon as Obi-Wan utters the name “Anakin,” we see the man himself, floating in a bacta tank. In the last few seconds, a close shave encounter with Reva makes Obi-Wan face the truth: Anakin isn’t dead, he’s alive — and going after his old master.

Find out where you can learn more about the upcoming villains' backstories and other appearances before Obi-Wan Kenobi hits Disney+.

This is because the number of the member directly corresponds to their rank in the Order. As in golf, the lower the number the better. We also see what appears to be the office of the Grand Inquisitor in this scene. The Fifth Brother is one of the recurring villains who has appeared in Star Wars: Rebels. He was often seen with his partner, the Seventh Sister, who has not yet appeared in any of the Obi-Wan trailers. As a tool used by the Grand Inquisitor, he will likely be a substantial threat. In fact, it was later revealed in the book Ultimate Star Wars, New Edition that he was one of the temple guards that escorted the fallen Jedi Bariss Offee to her trial. In Rebels, he is depicted as a savvy and sinister opponent who is extremely adept with a lightsaber. In animated shows and comics, the Inquisitors can even use these blades to fly a limited distance. In the trailer, we see what appears to be a shuttle similar to a Delta Class shuttle (Same as Krennic's from Rogue One) traveling towards an unmarked base. While nameless (and we will probably never see their faces) the groups of Purge Troopers seen in the trailers for Obi-Wan Kenobi also have a place in Star Wars canon. By the time the series begins, the Order is solidly controlled by Darth Vader, with the Grand Inquisitor as his second-in-command. These purge troopers were first seen in the video game Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and are somewhat similar to the Death Troopers (black suit and garbled language) seen in Rogue One and Star Wars: Rebels. The upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi show may be a new series, but it doesn’t feature that many new faces.

Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers kidnaps young Princess Leia (Vivien Lyra Blair) in Star Wars show 'Obi-Wan Kenobi' on Disney+.

So much so that Obi-Wan dredges up his old lightsaber and embarks on a perilous journey to the planet of Daiyu to find the girl. Obi-Wan Kenobi is of course the long-waited Star Wars series set in the gap between Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and the original Star Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope. It’s been ten years since Obi-Wan ( Ewan McGregor) took the high ground from his padawan/brother Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen). Since defeating the Sith Lord Darth Vader, Obi-Wan has been laying low on Tatooine, where he’s been prioritizing looking after young Luke Skywalker (Grant Feely) and sneaking his eopie choice cuts of meat. By now Star Wars fans have become used to seeing all sorts of cool folks pop up in their Disney+ shows, but Obi-Wan Kenobi just went full rock ‘n roll.

Ewan McGregor's Jedi Master may be keeping a watchful eye on Luke Skywalker, but his twin sister Princess Leia Organa plays a vital role in the Disney+ ...

Despite Blair taking on one of the most important roles in the franchise the actor is not listed on the show's IMDb page, likely because Lucasfilm did not want to reveal how important the character would be to the story. This is also not the first time Blair has portrayed a younger version of a key character onscreen, as she played a young Eleanor Roosevelt in HBO's First Lady. The Jedi Master returns in his own Disney+ limited series, which is set ten years after the events of Revenge of the Sith and finds Obi-Wan living in solitude on Tatooine, where audiences were first introduced to him in A New Hope.

The countdown is officially on for Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi, the latest limited series set in a galaxy far, far away to make its debut on Disney+.

As mentioned above, Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi will debut on Disney+ on Friday, May 27th. "It was amazing to see, and you could feel it out there today, that he is so beloved, Hayden. And rightly so, he's really a special guy, he's a beautiful man," McGregor recently shared to ComicBook.com's Brandon Davis. "He's loved by the Star Wars fans. And certainly today, it was unbelievable. They totally got used to me being around and then Hayden arrived for his first day and it was unbelievable. The countdown is officially on for Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi, the latest limited series set in a galaxy far, far away to make its debut on Disney+. Prior to the series' worldwide launch on Friday, attendees at Star Wars Celebration Anaheim have been given an opportunity to check out the first two episodes early, complete with an in-person premiere. Everyone's here to see Vader.' It was really nice, it's nice, I hope, for him, that he could feel that love from everybody.

"Obi-Wan Kenobi" starring Ewan McGregor premieres its first two episodes today on Disney Plus today (May 27).

The rest of the main cast includes Rupert Friend (The Grand Inquisitor), Moses Ingram (Seventh Sister), Sung Kang (Fifth Brother), Joel Edgerton (Owen Lars), Bonnie Piesse (Beru Lars), and Grant Feely (Luke Skywalker). Darth Vader will be a vital addition to the drama and speculation has run rampant that we'll see a confrontation with his former master, whose skills might be a bit rusty after ten years in exile. These heartless assassins report directly to the Grand Inquisitor and are headed up by Fifth Brother and Seventh Sister, who were previously introduced in "Star Wars: Rebels" Season 2.

What was Obi-Wan Kenobi up to during those years when he was watching over Luke Skywalker after the Republic's fall in "Revenge of the Sith?"

That scenario also creates plenty of opportunities for callbacks that, in a theatrical setting, would have fans whooping and hollering. He watches the young Luke from a respectable distance, which is still too close to suit the boy's Uncle Owen (Joel Edgerton), who well remembers how he ended up with the lad in his care. Those considerations aside, the Disney+ series presents subscribers what feels like a wonderful distraction, no Jedi mind tricks required.

Obi-Wan Kenobi's two-part premiere is a surprisingly weighty introduction to an emotional Star Wars story.

The whole two-part premiere is full of this intertwined scripting; the links between Obi-Wan, Leia, her kidnappers, and Reva all make for a show that feels nicely coherent and planned. But chase sequences and shootouts so far feel simple and workhorse compared to the best of The Mandalorian’s action direction. I really like that Kenobi’s emotional path is mirrored by his physical one, and the match cut between his and Vader’s face at the end of the two-part premiere provided the perfect chilling indicator of this. This moment is the first nudge; Obi-Wan needs to return to the ways of the Jedi. He needs to help people. She helps provide a little levity among an otherwise surprisingly serious slice of Star Wars. The same can be said about Kumail Nanjiani, who brings his usual charm to grifter Haja Estree. On Tatooine he refuses to help another Jedi escape from the inquisition because he doesn’t want to risk his semi-selfish mission of watching over Luke. That Jedi’s corpse is next seen strung up in the streets in a shot that highlights Chow’s ability to bring darkness without being inappropriately violent for this kind of show. This promises a real treat of an emotional and physical showdown later down the line, and I hope Obi-Wan Kenobi can deliver on that promise. The two-part premiere opens a series that is surprisingly complex and unexpectedly mature; a slice of Star Wars that feels heavy and layered. But while vital to the journey, the ongoing hunt for the final surviving Jedi is just the broad picture. Opening as Order 66 is initiated, this is a show about living amid the death of one age, and the start of a darker one. His new camp on Tatooine has been established not to watch over Luke because he represents hope for the future, but through an inability to let go of one of the remaining links to his fallen brother. George Lucas envisioned the Empire as a reflection of many things, but Obi-Wan Kenobi really leans into the Nazi parallels.

SPOILER ALERT: This review contains details of the first two episodes of Disney+'s Obi-Wan Kenobi series. The Force is not strong with Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Which, no matter how much Lawrence of Arabia you mix in with the original Blade Runner, some Matrix and an unseen Home Alone sequel, wilts faster than an orchid under the grueling twin suns of Tatooine. A demise made all the more scorched by the fact that significant swaths of Obi-Wan have a mid-1990s syndication cheapness to them, with slightly better lighting. Debuting a few hours earlier than anticipated on Disney+, the first two episodes of the Ewan McGregor starring miniseries are almost all undiluted nostalgia with no wisdom to impart and not much of a story to tell. Yet, as George Lucas learned the lucrative way, a little bit of Joseph Campbell can be good for the myth but bad for the execution.

The dual-episode premiere of the first non-Mandalorian-based Star Wars Disney Plus series has arrived, Obi-Wan Kenobi, which has expanded its name from just ...

Ewan McGregor is finally getting something to work with in terms of a script, an upgrade from the prequels. Leia rebels against her stuffy upbringing, and appears to be exhibiting at least mildly force-like symptoms where she can read people’s fears to a certain extent, disguised as being observant. The series was given to Mandalorian director Deborah Chow, and so far, it’s going pretty well.

It doesn't break new 'Star Wars' ground but Ewan McGregor is a Jedi sort of 'John Wick' in his galactic return in new Disney+ series 'Obi-Wan Kenobi.'

If "Star Wars" fans are going to see a new angle to things they know, it should be with a beloved familiar face. Fans will get a kick out of familiar characters (especially one in particular) who show up in “Kenobi"; more impressive are the subtle reflections of well-known scenes that add thematic depth. While it doesn’t break any huge new “Star Wars” ground, at least not yet – we’ll see what happens in the next four episodes (streaming weekly beginning Wednesday) – the series nicely bridges the gap between the prequels and the original trilogy and hints at some political intrigue within the evil Empire.

The Disney+ series' first two episodes see the legendary Jedi haunted and hurting — and tasked with an unexpected mission that calls back to the original ...

He implores the former Jedi to forget the past and to go after Leia. “You couldn’t save Anakin,” he says, “but you can save her.” His words do the trick, and as the episode ends, Obi-Wan’s headed off-planet to rescue Leia, his lightsaber on his hip. The next hurdle is Daiyu’s transport system, which has been shut down (presumably to keep Obi-Wan on the planet). Thankfully, Haja arrives just in time to guide them to a hangar where they can escape unnoticed. She couldn’t jump far enough to land on the building next to it, so she falls, and Obi-Wan must use the Force to save her. And across the galaxy, Lord Vader awakens and seems to sense his former Master through the Force. Dun-dun-dunnnnnnn! “We lost.” Despite that, he tells Owen ( Joel Edgerton) he still intends to train Luke to use the Force (a topic on which he and Owen disagree)… and he trades with the Jawas for trinkets for the kid. She assumes that Obi-Wan’s there to kidnap her too and runs off, leaving Kenobi to chase her through the neon streets of Daiyu. Instead, she alerts every bounty hunter on Daiyu about Kenobi’s presence, offering a reward and saying to report to her, not the Inquisitors, with him. Obi-Wan Kenobi “Part I” and “Part II” give the world-weary former Jedi a new mission in saving 10-year-old Princess Leia (Vivien Lyra Blair) from a trio of mysterious kidnappers. The biggest thing to note from their scenes is that the Third Sister is, as the Fifth Brother puts it, “impulsive,” and despite telling her boss otherwise, she’s looking to track down Kenobi. Why? As she says, so she can “get [what] she’s owed.” Obi-Wan has a bad day at work and sees the Jedi who wanted his help hanged in the town square, and then he goes home to find Bail standing in his cave. He has a dirty (you know you reek when a Jawa comments on how you smell), lonely, sandy existence, plagued by nightmares about Anakin and his fall to the Dark Side. When he reaches out through the Force for Qui-Gonn’s ( Liam Neeson) guidance, he gets no reply. The ordeal gives Kenobi and a young, precocious Leia some cute bonding moments and, thank the Maker, gets the Jedi off of Tatooine. But since we know the princess will be fine in the end, at times the first two episodes wind up feeling like a prelude to the “main event”: the inevitable Kenobi vs.

Deborah Chow believes that 'Obi-Wan Kenobi' can be enjoyed by those who are unfamiliar with the 'Star Wars' films.

Disney's latest Star Wars spin-off show has been hotly anticipated for the return of Ewan McGregor as the Jedi Knight – and it mostly lives up to the hype, ...

Obi-Wan Kenobi runs the same risk here, but justifies itself by being the first Disney+ Star Wars series to feel like a main Star Wars story, rather than some offcut, with its centring of lead characters from the films. The closing shot shows a burnt and scarred Vader in a bacta tank, giving us our first glimpse of the returning Hayden Christensen, who reprises his role as Anakin. It's no secret that they will fight again in this series, which has attracted some concern that it could undercut the significance of their duel in 1977's A New Hope – again, making the universe feel smaller. A recurring problem with Disney's era of Star Wars spin-off films and TV shows has been that the more gaps they fill in the overarching timeline, the more backstory of big characters that is illuminated, the smaller and less interesting the universe becomes. Whatever the reason for it, this reappraisal is evidently a driver for the latest Disney+ Star Wars show, Obi-Wan Kenobi, a slick six-part series that seeks to explore what happened to the Jedi Master after the harrowing events of 2005's Revenge of the Sith. The show even begins with a recap of the prequels. Obi-Wan is eventually forced into action by episode one's big surprise: the kidnap of a 10-year-old Princess Leia, played with an endearing precociousness by Bird Box's Vivien Lyra Blair. Obi-Wan, who is one of the few people in the galaxy aware of her importance, is approached by her adoptive father Bail Organa (Jimmy Smits reprising his prequel role) to rescue her. This, of course, could simply be a case of millennial nostalgia, although I would say it is also founded on a valid sense of appreciation for movies that – while undeniably flawed in execution – are rich in the kind of cohesion and ideas that Disney's sequel trilogy sorely lacked.

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If The Mandalorian sometimes erred on the side of self-conscious spareness and The Book of Boba Fett was more a playful feast of characters, creatures, and action than a well-organized and well-paced story, the first episode of Obi-Wan seems to try for a just-right mix of the two, merging the sense of isolation with a more clear narrative direction. You were once a great Jedi.” In fact, when it comes time for Obi-Wan to reunite with familiar faces, like Luke’s Uncle Owen (Joel Edgerton) or Leia’s dad Bail Organa (Jimmy Smits), the show actually becomes clunkier and less expressive. It’s probably too much to hope that a saga-centric, legacy-character Star Wars series could ever allow real detective-style detours, but Obi-Wan tracking down a young Leia at least gets him back on a case (albeit one that’s a mystery only to him). Instead, it looks toward Alderaan, where a 10-year-old Princess Leia (Vivien Lyra Blair) is already rebelling against her adopted parents, complete with her own sidekick droid, a nonspeaking Batteries Not Included–looking contraption called Lola. She’s soon kidnapped and taken off-planet for the first time in what turns out to be an attempt to lure Obi-Wan out of hiding. Despite being one of the longer episodes of Star Wars TV to date, this feels more like a complete (if obviously serialized) episode than much of Fett. And while none of these shows have really attempted to approximate George Lucas’s maximalism, Chow has a stronger command of quasi-western minimalism than Jon Favreau. But, hello there: Obi-Wan Kenobi is a whole other world of prequel affirmation, bringing back trilogy MVP Ewan McGregor and a number of other prequel actors to star in what is, essentially, a sidelong sequel to Revenge of the Sith. McGregor’s Obi-Wan has more breathing room, and the first chapter of his new story excels when it accumulates silent details and small interactions from his lonely routine. The Grand Inquisitor obviously enjoys speechifying to the citizens of Tatooine — he’s the one who coins the line about tracking a Jedi’s “trail of compassion” — while Reva has her sights set specifically on terrorizing her way toward Obi-Wan for reasons that are as yet unclear but thoroughly irritate her bosses. (The filmmakers were probably aiming for a jumble of imagery showing both their brotherly closeness and tragic outcomes, but I like to imagine Obi-Wan still wakes up in a cold sweat over Anakin’s reckless, sick-making pilot moves. Take Nari, for example, the excitable young lightsaber-wielder played by Uncut Gems filmmaker Benny Safdie: He’s mostly there to serve as a cautionary tale as he’s ferreted out by the Grand Inquisitor (Rupert Friend) and his Jedi-hunting team, including the mysterious Reva (Moses Ingram), who takes her job very seriously. The connection is made explicit from the very first scene of Obi-Wan, which might as well be a particularly elegant deleted scene from Sith. Full-series director Deborah Chow (who helmed two episodes of The Mandalorian, among other big-name TV projects) opens with a previously unseen sequence of clone troopers attacking a Jedi and her youngling students. Yet through a combination of younger fans who grew up on these films and a general thirst for big-canvas fantasy movies with evidence of someone’s, anyone’s, personal sensibility, the trilogy has begun something of a reputational turnaround in recent years.

Obi-Wan Kenobi is now streaming on Disney Plus, and the six-episode-long series fills in the gaps between the original Star Wars trilogy and the prequels.

The dude looks rough (though better than I would after a decade of hard desert living), and one of the show’s highlights so far has been watching him wrestle with the hard-wired instinct to be a hero. This, it turns out, is all part of the Third Sister’s plot to lure Obi-Wan out of hiding by appealing to his inherent need to help people. Eventually, her propensity for running off gets her in trouble when a gang of outlaws (the leader of whom is played by Flea, the bass player for the Red Hot Chili Peppers) kidnaps her. She has no interest in the royal life, though, and spends most of her time shirking responsibilities to play with a cute droid named Lola in the woods. You don’t have to worry about midi-chlorians or Watto. All that matters is the tumultuous and tragic relationship between Obi-Wan and Anakin. After the recap, the show then shifts to the tragedy at the Jedi Temple so that you remember why Obi-Wan is hiding. And for the first two episodes, at least, it works — Obi-Wan is playing the hits, reminding me why I actually care about Star Wars to begin with.