Since the official announcement from Ewan McGregor that Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi would be returning to the silver screen, the Star Wars community has been abuzz for the last two years trying to decipher what a 6 episode Obi-Wan series might entail, and what could possible be told in a timespan that, frankly, doesn’t have much story left to tell. However, we will say that, so far, the direction of Obi-Wan is heading in is pretty exciting, even though for his story at least, we know what happens to him. So it’s no spoiler that Obi-Wan will live throughout his series, along with some other heavy hitter characters that make an appearance in the first two episodes as well.
|| WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD. IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE FIRST TWO EPISODES YET AND DON’T WANT TO BE SPOILED, DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER. ||
The Obi-Wan Kenobi series takes place 10 years after Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. Now mind you, only 20 years take place between Episode III and Episode IV; with Star Wars Rebels and some other canon series that have or will debut on Disney+, as aforementioned, not a lot of story is left to tell for major characters like Obi-Wan. Well we thought that until we watched the series at 12am, minutes after the series debuted on Disney+. I was pleasantly surprised.
The series begins with a montage or recap of Episode’s I-III; it shows a young Obi-Wan, apprentice to Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn, to when he began to train Anakin Skywalker and up to their penultimate duel on the lava world Mustafar, where Obi-Wan ultimately beats his best friend and brother and leaves him for dead, only to be saved by Emperor Palpatine and finalize his story arch into Darth Vader. Now, for the uninitiated to Star Wars, for a recap, it’s pretty good. It actually gave me some chills watching it with the tone and music that was playing with it. All in all, it was an excellent way to start off the series.
With that, we are given a very different Obi-Wan than what we’re use to. Here, having spent the last ten years on Tatooine watching over a now young Luke Skywalker, we see an Obi-Wan that has literally given up. He’s mentally and physically beaten down, plagued with flashbacks of his time with Anakin and their duel against one another. You can tell quite clearly that Obi-Wan has immense regret of what happened to Anakin and what he was forced to do and Ewan McGregor emanates that very well.
Moving on, we see Obi-Wan’s daily life as being some type of meat cutter for a job and living in a secluded cave relatively close to Luke’s home, while not seeing eye to eye with Luke’s uncle, Owen Lars (Joel Edgerton). While seeing this we also are introduced to the Inquisitors, still on an endless hunt for surviving Jedi. For those that are not familiar with them, Inquisitors, led by the Grand Inquisitor (played by Rupert Friend), are former Jedi and/or Force sensitive individuals that swore loyalty to the Empire once the Jedi were eradicated. The Grand Inquisitor leads this elite group across the galaxy to hunt what remains of the Jedi Order.
Throughout the first episode, we have Obi-Wan trying to juggle his day to day life while watching over young Luke and staying quiet from the Inquisitors. You see both Obi-Wan’s resolve and beaten-esque nature when a young force sensitive approaches him in the dead of night seeking the wizened Jedi Master’s guidance, only to be turned away by him and to “bury his lightsaber in the sand”, saying the “time of the Jedi is over”, and leaves the young man to fend for himself. For Obi-Wan to say that to another fellow Jedi colleague, it hits a little heavy. Not to mention we see the same young man later on seemingly dead and hanging from an archway, seeing that the Inquisitors finally finding him.
But the real big surprise in the first episode was the reveal of a young Leia Organa, Luke’s twin sister who was taken to the planet Alderaan to be the adoptive daughter to Bail Organa, played by none other than Jimmy Smits himself, reprising the role he played in the previous prequel films. This was an approach that many didn’t seem to see coming, and almost immediately setting up for why Obi-Wan comes out of his recluse on Tatooine after Leia is abducted when galivanting through the woods. Bail Organa requests Obi-Wan’s help, who initially turns the senator away in a cold, un-Jedi like manner. However, Obi-Wan is eventually persuaded once Bail Organa makes a physical appearance to Obi-Wan’s hideout. After promising one last fight, Obi-Wan goes out into the desert and digs up a small box that turns out to be housing his and Anakin’s lightsabers. And with that, Obi-Wan sets off for planet Daiyu (a new Star Wars planet), thus beginning the second episode.
The second episode picks up right where the first leaves off, with Obi-Wan arriving on Daiyu and searching for the ship that
took Leia. The planet is tightly packed with an endless looking city and having a touch of underworld-esque vibe to it. Nevertheless, the Inquisitors are drawn to it, thanks to Reva, who turns out to have orchestrated the capture of the young princess Leia, unbeknownst to her that she is indeed the daughter of Anakin Skywalker; whether this is just purely coincidence or just mere dumb luck on Reva’s part to decide to kidnap Leia and draw out Obi-Wan remains to be seen, only mentioning to the Grand Inquisitor that Obi-Wan has an unusual strong tie to Bail Organa, thus deciding to kidnap Leia.
But this only angers the Grand Inquisitor, telling Reva that they will handle Kenobi’s capture themselves and that Reva’s “insolence” would be dealt with afterward. But that doesn’t settle well with Reva, who is still unusually obsessed with Obi-Wan; this in turn causes her to pull LITERALLY a John Wick move and places Obi-Wan’s wanted hologram onto every bounty hunter’s display on Daiyu, causing scores of bounty hunters to immediately turn the city upside down looking for Kenobi and Leia.
During all this, Obi-Wan finds Leia after going hand-to-hand with some thugs, something Obi-Wan hasn’t done literally in a decade, and it shows; the struggle is a nice small tidbit of realism seeing Obi-Wan go through. It sounds morbid, however, it adds a bit of depth and conflict to what was once thought of as an established, well-known character. But once Leia see’s the bounty hologram on an incapacitated bounty hunter who was quickly dispatched by Obi-Wan earlier, she takes off running, another realistic aspect that in real life, any child might do when seeing something like that, albeit an annoying aspect though, and you’ll see why.
Obi-Wan gives chase after Leia through the busy streets of Daiyu; here we are given excellent, very Star Warsy cutscenes of city life that you really only see in books or comics that the movies only gave mere glimpses of. The chase scene felt kind of underwhelming as if slowed down a bit; I mean after all, a middle aged Jedi Master should be able to keep up with a ten old right? During this we see Obi-Wan use a blaster instead of his lightsaber, fighting off a couple bounty hunters on the rooftops of the city (yes, Obi-Wan had to chase a 10 year old Leia up to the city rooftops). After dispatching the two bounty hunters, Obi-Wan goes to get Leia, who stupidly attempted to leap across a major gap between two buildings and falls, catching herself on a cable. Just as she slips, Obi-Wan forces himself to reach out with the Force and catch her (this is the first time he’s used the Force in a decade as he has cut himself off from it after Episode III seemingly). This also finally wins over Leia and her trust for Obi-Wan.
Meanwhile, Reva is in hot pursuit of Obi-Wan and Leia. Thanks to Haja (Kumail Nanjiani) and using a bit of the Dark Side, Reva probe’s Haja’s mind on where he sent Obi-Wan to in order for them to escape the planet. Haja only did this because up until meeting Obi-Wan in the second episode, Haja has been living as a con artist and describing himself as a Jedi helping people in need, but merely just conning them out of their credits (the currency in Star Wars) and turning out to be just an ordinary lowlife with magnets up his sleeves to mimic his use of the Force.
Reva has chased Obi-Wan and Leia into a small industrial docking area and hides from her, fearing what seems to be an inevitable lightsaber battle. While taunting Obi-Wan, she reveals that Anakin survived the battle back on Mustafar with Anakin, now Darth Vader, who according to Reva, has seemingly been searching for Obi-Wan for the last decade. Immediately you see the hurt, panic and fear in Obi-Wan’s eyes as if almost on the verge of having a panic attack. Ewan McGregor exhibits this emotion exceedingly well.
However, Reva’s taunting and seemingly inevitable conflict is cut short by the Grand Inquisitor, who tells Reva that after her many transgressions, that her services were “no longer going to be needed”. After that, the Grand Inquisitor is about to attack Obi-Wan when he is impaled by Reva’s lightsaber in a shocking and unexpected move, giving Obi-Wan the chance he needs to escape with Leia onboard a ship and off Daiyu, leaving a very angry Reva and a seemingly dead Grand Inquisitor, behind. When on their ship, we see a close up of Obi-Wan, tuning out Leia, as he looks onward with a blank stare and muttering “Anakin” under his breath as if in pain and anguish, only for the final scene to cut to Darth Vader (Hayden Christensen) opening his 
eyes at hearing his old name while floating in a bacta tank.
Between both episodes spanning nearly the length of a full feature film, a lot of Star Wars lore and material is thrown at you, and that’s a good thing. I still can’t get over the initial recap of Episode’s I-III at the beginning as it was put together so well. For the most part, there are very little, if any, complaints and/or criticisms we have for the series thus far. The chase scene when the kidnappers are tying to get Leia in the woods, and when Obi-Wan is trying to catch up to Leia on the city streets and rooftops of Daiyu, seems just so slowed down to the point where it seems like they are playing an innocent game of tag. It’s kind of excruciating to watch really.
However, what is missing, and quite frankly this is a good thing, is catering to fan service. There isn’t just random or well known characters or story plots seemingly thrown into the mix that don’t need to be addressed or won’t make any sense to the story just to cater to the fans. This is what plagued the Disney+ series The Book of Boba Fett. Yes, it had good elements, but its saving grace literally was the arrival of The Mandalorian, Grogu and the appearance of Jedi Master Luke Skywalker, saving the very bogged down and uninteresting titular character Boba Fett and his series. Fan service is nice, but only when used correctly and by the right person. The director, Deborah Chow, seems to know this and knows what she’s doing so far, and it shows throughout the first two episodes.
Filled to the brim with a surprising rich story, new and well known locales, impressive visuals (thank God) and the return of some well known heavy hitting names to lead an amazing cast, Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi is off to an amazing start that is sure to keep you on your seat waiting for the next episode and wishing that the series would be longer than just 6 episodes. While it is meant to be a limited ran series, with as well as it debuted and off to a running start, it may be no surprise if Obi-Wan Kenobi is picked up for a second season because after all, there is still 10 years of story to tell before Star Wars Episode IV comes into play.
Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi is now streaming on Disney+ with a new episode airing every Wednesday.
I am married to a beautiful and devoted woman; I have been writing for over ten years now with one science fiction novel published and currently working on a couple screenplays. I am a college graduate with a Masters in criminal justice and currently furthering my education for my Ph.D in criminal justice. In my off time, I game on Xbox and my gaming computer when time permits.
