This is the news you're looking for! After years of speculation that Obi-Wan Kenobi would get his own movie, a la Solo: A Star Wars Story, and recent rumors about a TV show, we finally have confirmation that good old Obi-Wan will star in a series. Ewan McGregor, who of course played Obi-Wan in the three prequel films, will reprise the role. Here's what we know about the series so far.
The Obi-Wan series has yet to receive an official title, and was confirmed at the D23 Expo 2019. Ewan McGregor himself was on hand for the announcement, much to the delight of the audience at the Disney+ showcase. All of the scripts for the Obi-Wan show have already been written, and filming will begin filming next year.
Unsurprisingly, details about the plot are being kept under wraps for the moment, but we do know that the new series will pick up eight years following the events of Revenge of the Sith, which ended with Obi-Wan exiling himself to Tatooine to watch over and protect young Luke Skywalker from afar. Taking place only eight years after Revenge of the Sith does simplify what could have been some sticky issues.
For one thing, if the show went much farther in the 20 years or so between the end of the prequel trilogy and the beginning of A New Hope, the question would arise of why Obi-Wan still looked like Ewan McGregor rather than Alec Guinness. The Obi-Wan who appeared in Star Wars Rebels Season 3 -- which was catching up to the beginning of the original trilogy era -- was more Alec Guinness than Ewan McGregor.
A passage of eight years means the show probably won't have to do too much to either age up or age down Ewan McGregor. Also, with the passage of only eight years, fans won't have to clamor to see what Luke is up to and how many womp rats he's bullseyed in his T-16 lately. Luke will still be quite young.
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My biggest question at this point is whether the action comes to Obi-Wan and he has to deal with it on the home front or if something happens that Obi-Wan gets pulled back into galactic conflict. He was clearly going to take his distant guardianship of Luke very seriously, and Star Wars Rebels saw Obi-Wan only really get to the point that he would kill Maul (for real this time) after Maul figured out that Obi-Wan was protecting somebody.
It would take something very big to get Obi-Wan to willingly abandon Tatooine for as long as Luke was on that planet. If the show takes him away, will he go willingly, or be pulled against his will? And if the action comes to Tatooine, why did we never hear about it?
The span of time between the end of the prequel trilogy and the beginning of the original trilogy is largely a blank space, with Star Wars Rebels and Rogue One going down in the final years and days before A New Hope. Fans can spend plenty of time speculating about what's to come, especially since filming doesn't even begin until next year. The good news is that the first live-action Star Wars series will launch with Disney+ in November, and the first trailer for The Mandalorian is epic.
On top of The Mandalorian and the Obi-Wan series, Disney+ will also host the Rogue One prequel series and the long-awaited revival of The Clone Wars, as well as a whole bunch of MCU series.
