(Clockwise from bottom-left): Joel Edgerton as Uncle Owen (Disney+); Kumail Nanjiana as Haja (Screenshot: Disney+); Satine Cryze in The Clone Wars (Disney via starwars.com); Samuel L. Jackson as Mace Windu (Disney via starwars.com); Darth Vader (Disney via starwars.com); Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi (Disney+)Graphic: Jimmy Hasse
At long last, Obi-Wan Kenobi isn’t so far, far away. The new Star Wars series, featuring Ewan McGregor’s much-anticipated return to the titular role, arrives on Disney+ May 27 with the first two of its six episodes dropping at 3 a.m. ET. Directed by Deborah Chow, whose previous intergalactic credits include chapters three and seven of The Mandalorian, Obi-Wan Kenobi takes place after Revenge Of The Sith, which saw Obi-Wan’s protege Anakin (Hayden Christensen) turn to the Dark Side—but before A New Hope, whichhad Obi-Wan fighting alongside Luke, Leia, Chewbacca, and Han up until his untimely death at Darth Vader’s (formerly Anakin’s) gloved hand.
Filling in what happened for Jedi Master Obi-Wan during this critical time in Star Wars history could mean cosmic shifts for the storytelling universe. So, of course, like a herd of Banthas champing at their bits, we’re dying to see what happens next—and can’t help but start theorizing. Here are 10 burning questions we have before watching Obi-Wan Kenobi.
1. How will Vader and Obi-Wan’s second face-off change the Star Wars canon?
Photo Disney+
If we were writing this list on paper, then you can bet this question would be capitalized, underlined, and in a Dark Side shade of red—because it’s pretty much the only question that really matters. Recall that, at the end of Revenge Of The Sith, Obi-Wan Kenobi leaves Anakin to die on Mustafar after Anakin murders a whole bunch of Jedi children on behalf of the Sith. Previously, it was thought that the pair didn’t meet again until Vader killed Obi-Wan in A New Hope; but, of course, the TV show seems set to change all of that. The trailer never shows the two together, but Inquisitor Reva’s (Moses Ingram) insistence to Obi-Wan that “You can’t escape him!” seems at the very least…pointed. If (a 2008 TV series set between the events of the second and third prequel films)let us better know Anakin and Obi-Wan as friends, then Obi-Wan Kenobi should deconstruct their hatred in a way that imbues what we know comes next for the two enemies with new meaning. Let’s just hope that all that revisionist history doesn’t result in too many plot holes—or, god forbid, any full-blown retconning. [Alison Foreman]
