Yesterday, we got our first real look at Obi-Wan Kenobi in the form of a trailer that told us… very little. (But it looked cool.) The series has been in the works for years, and a new piece at Entertainment Weekly details the production’s sometimes-bumpy road to the small screen. It’s full of sweet moments, from Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen’s long-lasting affection for one another to Moses Ingram’s enthusiasm for her new character’s look.
But the story also includes a few tantalizing—and frustrating—details about the tone and focus of Obi-Wan Kenobi, which is set at the height of Palpatine’s Empire and in a dark time for its title character, who McGregor describes as “a broken man.” What the show seeks to explore, according to writer Joby Harold, is how Obi-Wan becomes the man we first met in A New Hope.
“When we last saw Obi-Wan in the prequels, he’s very emotional,” Harold tells EW. “There’s a passion to him. And when we get to see him again in A New Hope, he is the Zen master. That was the story that I wanted to understand.”
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This is exactly the right question to ask in an Obi-Wan story. But what’s worrying is Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy’s focus on creating “a hopeful, uplifting story.” She tells EW, “It’s tricky when you’re starting with a character in the state that Obi-Wan would be in coming off of Revenge of the Sith. That’s a pretty bleak period of time.”
You don’t say. But—wild idea here—what if we let bleak Star Wars stories be bleak? What if a Star Wars story really faced the reality of the Empire, the mass murder of Jedi and younglings, the atrocity of the clone and stormtrooper armies? Writer Harold seems to understand, noting, “All the horrors that come with the Empire are being made manifest throughout the galaxy, so everything that was in the prequels has crumbled.”
According to EW, Kennedy’s concern about the tone was part of was led her to shut down production in early 2020, and to bring on Harold to replace previous writer Hossein Amini. Director Deborah Chow says of the previous version of Obi-Wan Kenobi, “We inherited some of it, but we did really make some significant changes and add a few different elements.”
Lucasfilm is notoriously tight-lipped about, well, everything, and we have only that brief teaser to go on—and it shows mostly a pensive-seeming Obi-Wan. McGregor, Christensen, and the stellar new cast members (including Moses Ingram, Indira Varma, and Sung Kang) are more than enough reason to watch. But forcing an uplifting story into this dark time in the galaxy seems like a strange way to go. We’ll see for ourselves when Obi-Wan Kenobi premieres on May 25th.
I think Star Wars always has to be about hope.
Relentlessly bleak Star Wars is not Star Wars. (Obviously there can be bleak stories told, or bleak episodes or what not). But hope is like…the main throughline through the whole saga, and this story in particular brushes very closely to the main saga.
To me it’s very much like Lord of the Rings – it’s about hope in dark places (and the fact that anybody can take a step back towards the light). I definitely want to see Obi-Wan struggling here…thinking about the line about compassion in the trailer, I am even wondering if the person we see strung up is somebody Obi-Wan tried to help. What will it mean for Obi-Wan to have to really lay low, even when he wants to help out? And of course – similar in some ways to what we see in Luke in TLJ – struggling with his own feelings of failure, loss of faith, etc. And yet in the end, still finding a spark of hope worth protecting and fostering (just like Luke finds at the end of TLJ).
That hope is the throughline connecting Revenge of the Sith (the last scene/soundtrack cue is literally called ‘A New Hope’) and…A New Hope (duh). That’s what makes the ending of Revenge of the Sith powerful – it’s this hugely despairing moment, but it still ends on that binary sunset, looking to the future. With hope, both figuratively and literally.
(And yes, I do personally consider Leia part of the ‘new hope’ even though Luke is more intimately tied to Anakin’s story specifically.)
As somebody who’s had to live with the disappointments, disasters & distress of the 21st century for over twenty-one years now I say **** Bleak; if you want Bleak look out a window or check the newspapers.
A little hopefulness in fiction can hardly hurt at a point in history where War seems to be spurring hard after Pestilence in order to catch up with the latter’s body count (and God knows, some days Famine seems closer and closer to boot, especially if the boffins are right about our chances of coping with Climate Change).
Depressed lead characters can be awfully tricky to deal with. Look at how focusing on the traumas Civil War veteran John Carter had gone through weighed down the movie of the same name. And how the stresses of combat haunted Commander Sinclair in the first Season of Babylon 5 (he was replaced the next season by Captain Sheridan, a much more upbeat character).
That being said, showing how a person moves from despair to hope can make for a very powerful story. If they can carry it off, we will be watching something very special, a far more important issue than “when does Obi Wan’s hair go from brown to grey?”
Sinclair wasn’t replaced due to the character. Micheal O’Hare had some serious mental health issues which required him to step away from the show. The character was haunted for sure, but he was far from depressed. A fairly upbeat character who had seen some stuff.
That being said I don’t want a bleak show. Kenobi is going to be going through a lot. The purge. Betrayal. Having to hide. Very much Kenobi reconciling the past and finding a new way forward. But it’s hope in spite of the dark.
Don’t waste this chance. Tell a good story.
Yes bring on the bleak. There’s room for it. But, I think we can all agree, it has to be in service to the story.
@1,
I definitely want to see Obi-Wan struggling here…thinking about the line about compassion in the trailer, I am even wondering if the person we see strung up is somebody Obi-Wan tried to help. What will it mean for Obi-Wan to have to really lay low, even when he wants to help out?
I wonder if we’ll see other surviving Jedi encounter Obi-Wan during this series — and call him out for not doing more to live by the code even in exile and in hiding.
They couldn’t understand — and it’s not just the need to safeguard Luke (and Leia) at any costs. While there’s plenty of culpability to go around for the Order’s downfall, it is largely on Obi-Wan’s shoulders. He’s directly responsible for Anakin’s failure. Living by the Jedi Code got everybody killed and tipped the galaxy into the Dark Side.
So, while I hate Luke’s TLJ characterization, I’ll ironically excited to see Obi-Wan going through that same emotional journey/struggle here.
@6 – I was just having this exact discussion. I occasionally browse the saltierthancrait subreddit (although it’s gotten even saltier lately) and they’re already professing doom. Ironically, some have said it’s because they think it will turn Obi-Wan into another ‘Jake Skywalker’ and others are actually upset that Kennedy wanted a more hopeful rewrite.
I have not agreed with many storytelling directions but this would be a place I agree with her – I think the story DOES need to have a hopeful note, but THIS is actually the appropriate venue/context (at least for me) to see a Jedi who is completely bitter, disillusioned, hopeless, guilty, questioning his former ideals, etc – and ultimately working through them. (It’s not that Luke couldn’t also have these struggles, I just don’t love the pacing/context they put that story into. In fact, there is a lot about that story even with Luke that I would enjoy which is why I actually do like some of what TLJ is doing).
Although I’m still going to say that – massive flaws/blindness of the Jedi Order aside – Anakin is still mostly responsibile for his own actions. The Jedi were partially wrong, but not completely wrong about how dangerous unchecked attachment/possession can be. They just had no tools for how to deal with it aside from ‘just don’t get attached, ever!’ which isn’t gonna work on somebody like Anakin, and with his history. But at any rate, Anakin still chose the dark. He could have walked away, if what he really wanted was to be with Padme. He could have accepted that death is a part of life, like billions of us have to. But he was The Chosen One (again, the Jedi surely play a role in the way he was both held up but denied any trust) and so…of course he thought the answer was more power.
Honestly, one of the few things I think the sequels got RIGHT was how Kylo/Ben’s arc of ‘finishing what his grandfather started’ ends in him pouring out his power to save somebody he loves (at least, in thematic symbolism if not the actual execution story wise). But I have this whole head canon about how the Kef Bir duel is an inverse of the Mustafar duel.
Although I’m still going to say that – massive flaws/blindness of the Jedi Order aside – Anakin is still mostly responsibile for his own actions. The Jedi were partially wrong, but not completely wrong about how dangerous unchecked attachment/possession can be. They just had no tools for how to deal with it aside from ‘just don’t get attached, ever!’ which isn’t gonna work on somebody like Anakin, and with his history.
Yeah, it’s been a while since I read the Darth Bane Trilogy. But IIRC, once the ancient Council approved the ‘No Attachments’ plan (to prevent a repeat of the Sith Wars and Jedi defecting), the reaction of one of that book’s main Jedi characters was basically, “Are you all insane?”
Even then, at least some of the ancient Jedi correctly foresaw just how incredibly shortsighted and dangerous the ‘No Attachments’ dogma was going to be. Hell, in Zahn’s post-PT novels, Luke outright couldn’t make sense of that logic even 15 years after Yoda had trained him.
Matt Stover actually made an interesting observation in the Revenge of the Sith novelization: Yoda, as the longest lived Jedi, was the single biggest obstacle to any reform in the Order. Because he was trained by the post-Sith Wars Masters, he carried that interpretation of the Jedi Code through the centuries and for all intents remade the Order in his image (rather than evolving with the times as the Sith did).
So, I can’t help wondering how the Order might’ve fared in the PT and if any internal reforms might’ve gained steam had Yoda not held political and theological power.
But at any rate, Anakin still chose the dark. He could have walked away, if what he really wanted was to be with Padme. He could have accepted that death is a part of life, like billions of us have to. But he was The Chosen One (again, the Jedi surely play a role in the way he was both held up but denied any trust) and so…of course he thought the answer was more power.
Yeah, but would Obi-Wan see it that way? Isolated on Tatoone for 20 years and strewing in his guilt and shame and analyzing every thing he could’ve done differently.
Incidentally, this is why I’ve never quite bought the “Qui-Gon could’ve stopped Anakin’s fall” arguments.
Oh, sure, Qui-Gon would’ve had an easier time dealing with Anakin than a orthodox Jedi like Obi-Wan. They were both mavericks and aloof and theu had a bond.
The thing is, Anakin was already arrogant and thinking he was special and different even before TPM; we saw that multiple times on Tatooine. Qui-Gon’s belief in the Chosen One only fanned those flames and made it worse.