SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for the first two episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi. If you have not yet watched the show, continue at your own risk!
This was a massive day for the Star Wars franchise. 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. Today also marks the launch of the brand new and long-awaited Obi-Wan Kenobi series on Disney+, and the first two episodes of the show provide some serious surprises for fans.
All Star Wars projects are good at playing their cards close to the vest, but there are parts of Obi-Wan Kenobi that nobody could have seen coming – and we've highlighted a bunch of them for you in this super spoiler-y feature.
Obi-Wan Kenobi Has Basically Renounced The Code Of The Jedi
Star Wars as a whole is designed to be a classic battle between pure good and pure evil, and that’s very much exemplified in the code of the Jedi – which stresses the elimination of anger and fear in favor of peace and serenity. When a Jedi Knight sees someone in trouble, it is their responsibility to help, as illustrated in Obi-Wan Kenobi’s opening scene. Unfortunately, that’s not a philosophy to which the titular character in the Disney+ series subscribes anymore when we first meet catch up with him.
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. That time has seen Ben Kenobi remain emotionally shattered and no longer able to live up to the tenets of the Jedi Code. He has multiple chances to help people in the show’s premiere, but instead opts to do nothing. That is, of course, until he is visited by an old friend…
After Just One Episode, Obi-Wan Kenobi Leaves Tatooine
Thus far, the Disney+ shows have been very desert-focused when it comes to planet atmospheres. Between the first two seasons of The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, Disney+ subscribers have seen an ungodly amount of sand when tuning into episodes of the latest Star Wars series. We’ve been bracing ourselves for more of this in Obi-Wan Kenobi, as audiences have been told that the show would see the eponymous Jedi keeping an eye on Luke Skywalker from a far – setting up their eventual meeting in Star Wars: A New Hope – but instead we’ve been thrown an interesting curveball.
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. Obviously he’s going to eventually come back to the sand and heat, if not just to make good on the series’ larger promise, but it was surprising to see him go off-world so quickly.
There’s Way More Focus On Princess Leia Organa Than Luke Skywalker So Far
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. We do get a first look at Luke in the premiere, who looks a whole lot like his father at a young age (seen fantasizing about being in the pilot of a space ship), but far more time is dedicated to establishing what life is like for Leia living the life of a royal on the planet Alderaan.
Again, we fully expect that the show will eventually pivot and will see Obi-Wan Kenobi back on Tatooine and keeping an eye on the central male hero of the original Star Wars trilogy, but for now it’s unexpected that we’re seeing so much of young Leia, and the kidnapping plot is a solid way to break up the monotony of Obi-Wan’s life and help him rediscover his purpose.
Special Appearances From Temuera Morrison And Flea
Because everyone in Hollywood loves Star Wars, we are basically conditioned at this point to expect some fun and special cameos in any new project that is released. In this realm, Obi-Wan Kenobi definitely doesn’t disappoint. Not only is it a fun surprise to see Flea (bassist of the Red Hot Chili Peppers) playing the leader of the gang who kidnaps young Princess Leia, but there’s also a great brief appearance by Temuera Morrison as one of his many clone characters in the universe.
Credited as “Veteran Clone Trooper,” the role played by Temuera Morrison in the second episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi doesn’t seem to be a character with which fans are familiar from Star Wars: The Clone Wars, but does that really matter? It’s fascinating that the Star Wars universe is littered with potentially thousands of men who all have the same face, and it’s fun that Morrison keeps appearing in different roles. 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+.
Is The Grand Inquisitor Already Dead?
Even knowing about Hayden Christensen’s Darth Vader is in Obi-Wan Kenobi, fans have had some high expectations for what to expect from the Grand Inquisitor – the villain played by Rupert Friend who is best known from the animated series Star Wars: Rebels. Through most of the first two episodes, he is calling the shots and working to keep his subordinates in their places as the hunt for Jedi continues… but then he winds up getting a lightsaber through the chest courtesy of Moses Ingram’s Reva Sevander a.k.a. the Third Sister.
The first two episodes certainly aren’t shy about showcasing the tension that exists between the Grand Inquisitor and the Third Sister, but the sniping seems like it is meant to set up an arc for the entire season. Instead, it’s resolved much earlier than expected – or at least that’s what we’re left thinking for now. 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.
On that note, Obi-Wan Kenobi fans can start getting excited now for what’s coming in the weeks ahead, and the countdown has already started for the next chapter. Episode 3 will be available to those with a Disney+ subscription next Friday, June 3 – and you can keep track of all upcoming projects from the franchise by heading over to our Upcoming Star Wars Movies and TV guide.
