When Disney took over the Star Wars franchise, the cinematic Sequel Trilogy seemed to be their forte, but after a series of not so overwhelming results, it seems that the focus of Disney’s run shifted towards TV shows produced for Disney+. Now, unlike the movies, the TV series have, so far, been a great success for Disney, especially after The Mandalorian premiered. Now, Disney has released several new projects in the meantime, but we’re going to talk about one upcoming project in this article – Disney’s upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi TV series.
Disney’s Obi-Wan Kenobi TV series is set to premiere on May 25, 2021, exclusively on Disney+. The show will follow Obi-Wan Kenobi watching over Luke Skywalker on Tatooine, ten years after the events of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, during which he is going to end up on a big adventure. The series is going to have six episodes and is directed by Deborah Chow.
The rest of this article is going to bring you all the known and unknown information related to the upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi streaming series that is set to appear on Disney+. You’re going to find out about its exact release date, whether there is a trailer, what the story will be about, and much more about this upcoming series about one of Star Wars‘ best characters.
Obi-Wan Kenobi release date
In 2013, the Walt Disney Company and Lucasfilm announced that they intended to create a new line of anthology films independent of each other, among which was a movie focusing on the character of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Ewan McGregor, the actor who played Kenobi in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, has been approached to reprise the role. However, McGregor was aware of the project as early as 2015, and until 2019 he was forced to withhold information from interviews.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the first installment in the Anthology series that eventually became A Star Wars Story, was released in December 2016 and received critical acclaim. In August 2017, sources reported that an Obi-Wan Kenobi-centric film starring McGregor was in development by Lucasfilm, with Billy Elliot to direct and Stephen Daldry in early talks to helm and oversee the project.
Joel Edgerton, who played Owen Lars in the second trilogy, had expressed interest in reprising his role in a spin-off film. Once he was hired to direct the film, Daldry contacted Hossein Amini to join the project. However, all Star Wars spin-off films were put on hold following weaker-than-expected box office returns for Solo: A Star Wars Story, the second A Star Wars Story film, in May 2018. Later, Disney CEO Bob Iger revealed that Lucasfilm has re-evaluated its release schedule following Solo‘s poor reception.
It was later confirmed that there would be a hiatus following the release of Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker until 2022. The film project quickly turned into a television series instead. At some point, before the film turned into a television series, McGregor took part in a costume test. The Obi-Wan Kenobi-centric TV series, which was set to air on Disney+, Disney’s then-new streaming service, was officially announced by McGregor and Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy at Expo D23 2019 after months of rumors and speculation.
During the event, it was also revealed that the episodes had already been written and production would begin in 2020. Amini and Deborah Chow were later announced as showrunners. On January 23, 2020, it was reported that the series had been put on hold due to alleged “script issues”. However, Ewan McGregor later stated that these rumors were exaggerated, and production continued as normal.
McGregor added that while filming was indeed postponed to January 2021, the series’ scheduled release date would not be affected. On April 2, 2020, it was reported that Joby Harold was hired to write the series, replacing Amini, who left the project in January. Filming began in May 2021 in Los Angeles under the false title Pilgrim. The series used the same video wall technology as on The Mandalorian. The whole process was completed in September 2021.
By then, we knew that the show would premiere sometime during 2022, probably in the first half of the year. Confirmation finally arrived in February 2002, when it was revealed that the Obi-Wan Kenobi television series would have its premiere on Disney+ on May 25, 2022, which coincided with the 45th anniversary of the release of the original Star Wars movie.
Obi-Wan Kenobi trailer
Now that we’ve gone over the basic production and release information we have on the Obi-Wan Kenobi series, we can continue with the trailer. Sadly, at this very moment, we don’t have a trailer for the show, which is somewhat surprising, seeing how the premiere is only three and a half months away. The only thing we have at this moment is the first-look poster we’ve shown above. Why that is we don’t know, but chances are we’re going to see a trailer quite soon, as part of the promotion for the show.
A likely reason could be that Disney is still focused on The Book of Boba Fett, another series focusing on an old character, and a series that is heavily connected to The Mandalorian. Obi-Wan Kenobi will, as it seems, explore a completely new direction in from the world of Star Wars, so it might be that Disney simply wanted to do things properly and not confuse the fandom.
Taking into account everything we’ve said, a trailer for Obi-Wan Kenobi is probably going to appear very soon, possibly even this month. There is a slight possibility that Disney might delay it until Star Wars Day, but we hope we don’t have to wait that long.
Obi-Wan Kenobi plot
The general outline of the plot of Obi-Wan Kenobi has been revealed by Disney and through interviews with some of the actors. Ten years have passed since the victory of the Sith in the Clone Wars, and the entire galaxy has been subdued by the new Empire of Sheev Palpatine and his second in command Darth Vader. Meanwhile, Obi-Wan Kenobi, a former master former member of the Jedi Council, has completed his tenth year of self-imposed exile on the distant and scarcely populated planet of Tatooine, which has also fallen under the influence of the Empire and the criminal syndicates. Obi-Wan has been developing new techniques and a new ideology for the Jedi while questioning the old order and its existential codes.
Sadly, we don’t know anything else. We know that Obi-Wan is keeping tabs on young Luke Skywalker, who is being raised by the Lars family, we know that he is going to have a thrilling adventure while on Tatooine, and we know that he is going to clash with Darth Vader, his former apprentice, once more. This has been revealed by the producers and the actors. For more details, we’ll just have to wait until May.
Obi-Wan Kenobi cast
And while we do know the main characters in the series, the whole cast of the series has, of course, not been revealed. We know that several characters from the Prequel Trilogy are returning to reprise their roles, and that some new faces are set to appear. We know some of the names that are going to appear in the series, but we don’t know their roles as of yet, but the list is certainly going to expand once the show actually premieres. This is the list of known cast members of the Obi-Wan Kenobi series:
- Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi, former Jedi Master of the Jedi Order. He currently lives in exile on the planet Tatooine, while taking care of the newly chosen Luke Skywalker in the shadows.
- Hayden Christensen as Darth Vader, a Sith Lord formerly known as Anakin Skywalker. He is now the second in command of the empire and is dedicated to subduing all potential dangers to the Sith, while also trying to get revenge against Obi-Wan for defeating him on Mustafar.
- Joel Edgerton as Owen Lars, the paternal uncle of Luke Skywalker.
- Bonnie Piesse as Beru Lars, the paternal aunt of Luke Skywalker.
- Kumail Nanjiani
- Indira Varma
- Rupert Friend
- O’Shea Jackson Jr.
- Sung Kang
- Simone Kessell
- Benny Safdie
Will there be a Season 2 of Obi-Wan Kenobi?
At this moment, it might still be too early to discuss a potential second season of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Namely, the Obi-Wan Kenobi TV series was initially envisioned as a film before it was restructured as a TV show. Now, this doesn’t mean anything, but it indicates that Disney wanted to tell just one story about the great Jedi Master. This was clearly transferred to the format of the television series, as Obi-Wan Kenobi will have only six episodes, i.e., a miniseries format.
Does this mean that a second season is not likely? Not at all! There are stories and stories one could tell about Obi-Wan Kenobi’s adventures between The Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, but we’ll simply have to wait and see whether Disney will do it. There is a lot of potential for this show, which is almost certainly going to be a hit, especially when you consider the crossover potential with other currently ongoing Star Wars shows.
Ultimately, we don’t know whether that will happen and we’ll just have to wait and see what Disney has planned with one of the franchise’s most memorable characters.
