A new trailer just dropped for the upcoming Disney+ series centring on Ewan McGregor’s iconic jedi, giving us our first real look at Christensen’s return as the nefarious Sith lord
A new trailer for Obi-Wan Kenobi, aptly dropped on May the 4th, has given us our long-awaited first glance at Hayden Christensen’s return as Darth Vader. Catch that voice-over at the 36-second mark — “You still want Kenobi… he’s gone” — is that a familiar voice we hear?
The long-rumoured Obi-Wan Kenobi TV show was finally confirmed back in 2019 and, set to finally hit Disney+ on May 27 globally, it’s the next title on the conveyor belt. Yeah, sure, The Mandalorian, Book of Boba Fett, and (especially) Star Wars: Visions have been good — but this has got to be the most hotly anticipated of the bunch. Why? Ewan McGregor, that’s why.
Who stars in Obi-Wan Kenobi?
Well, who’s gonna star in Obi-Wan Kenobi if not Obi-Wan himself? OG Obi Alec Guinness is long-deceased, of course, but the Star Wars prequel trilogy opened up room for another swashbuckling young fellow to come in and make the role his own: erstwhile Trainspotting lead — and present Scottish icon — Ewan McGregor. “To step back into his shoes again now and do a series, a whole series about Obi-Wan Kenobi for [the] fans,” he said in a recent interview, “it just makes me really happy.”
What is Obi-Wan Kenobi about?
Nobody really knows. The official synopsis states the story begins “10 years after the dramatic events of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, where Kenobi faced his greatest defeat: the downfall and corruption of his best friend and Jedi apprentice, Anakin Skywalker, turned evil Sith Lord Darth Vader”. It’s a fair bet we’ll find Obi-Wan camped out on Tatooine, where we last see him in Sith, and once again find him in A New Hope.
Given the synopsis centres on the Kenobi/Skywalker dynamic, it’s fair to assume that the story will at least deal with Obi-Wan’s residual trauma: y’know, having dismembered his best friend and left him to die in a pool of lava. And if that isn’t a narrative set up for a climactic battle, we don’t know what is. The animated show Star Wars: Rebels sees Obi-Wan duel a returning Darth Maul, so we might see an interpretation of that fight, too.
McGregor has previously kept schtum on plot details. “I’m not going to give away anything else about the storyline, only I think it’s really going to satisfy Star Wars fans,” he said in the same interview. “I always felt there was a story between Episode III where I finished playing Obi-Wan in the movies and Episode IV where Alec Guinness is Obi-Wan Kenobi. […] I think people are going to like it.”
But in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, the 50-year-old loosened his lips. “We find Obi-Wan at the beginning of our story rather broken, and faithless, and beaten, somewhat given up,” McGregor told EW. One introduction is Moses Ingram’s Inquisitor Reva, who “will prove a formidable new foe as she seeks out Jedi-in-hiding for the Empire,” the magazine says. Presumably that centrally includes Obi-Wan. One new planet he’s set to visit is Daiyu, which “sort of has a Hong Kong feel to it,” according to writer Joby Harold. Graffiti, neon lights, an air of dystopia… it’s giving Blade Runner.
When will Obi-Wan Kenobi be released?
May 27 — almost exactly forty-five years after Star Wars: A New Hope was released to insatiable U.S. audiences. We still would’ve gone with the fourth.
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