Long before Disney snapped up Lucasfilm, Star Wars fans obsessed over the potential of an Obi-Wan Kenobi series. The extensive time gap between the character’s exile at the end of Revenge of the Sith to Luke Skywalker finding him as an old man in A New Hope lent itself to all kinds of ripe storytelling potential. Viewers unequivocally loved Ewan McGregor’s performance as the wizened Jedi and begged for a chance to see what he was up to prior to his final battle with Darth Vader.
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Over 15 years later, McGregor will finally reprise his role in the Obi-Wan Kenobi limited series on Disney+. On Wednesday, March 9, Disney debuted the first trailer for the hotly anticipated project during the middle of an investor call. The initial footage offers plenty of juicy images to dig into, so we’re breaking it all down to give some context on why it seems like this series might actually meet the impossibly high expectations.
Ah, yes, Tatooine—as if we hadn’t seen enough of Star Wars’ favorite desert planet in The Book of Boba Fett (and The Mandalorian, and the most recent trilogy), While some viewers may be tired of a supposed galaxy-spanning franchise revisiting the same dusty rock, in this case, it was inevitable—Tatooine is where Obi-Wan went into hiding, to watch over a young Luke Skywalker. The imagery of Obi-Wan striding across the shifting sands on horseback is evocative of a lone gunslinger or weary ronin. A bit of voiceover critically reminds us that in the wake of Vader’s rise at the end of Sith, the Jedi Order is broken; the little few who remain will have to look over their shoulders for the remainder of their days.
Obi-Wan is doing some looking of his own, as it seems he’s lingering on Tatooine to ensure a young Luke Skywalker doesn’t fall into any trouble. That de-aging technology keeps getting better and better!
As the trailer cues up John Williams’ “Duel of the Fates,” aka the best piece of Star Wars score ever (first heard during the instant-classic Phantom Menace climactic duel with Darth Maul), we’re introduced to some menacing new figures—the Inquisitors. Initially appearing in the Star Wars Rebels animated series, the Inquisitors are a collective of former Jedi turned Jedi hunters, hand-selected by Emperor Palpatine and known for their double-bladed, circle-like lightsabers and their Imperial Officer-inspired armor. The group’s leader is known only as The Grand Inquisitor—seen here and played by Homeland’s Rupert Friend. They also have weird names like the Seventh Sister or the Fifth Brother. In short: they’re bad news.
Here’s the first introduction of Moses Ingram’s (The Queen’s Gambit) Inquisitor Reva, as she meets with fellow Inquisitors inside what appears to be Fortress Inquisitorius (seen in the Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order videogame). Quick aside: The character with the helmet-like hat? That’s the Fifth Brother, portrayed by Fast and Furious star Sung Kang. The trailer quickly establishes Reva as a threat, stringing someone up in the Mos Eisley town square as Joel Edgerton’s Owen Lars (Luke Skywalker’s adoptive dad) distraughtly looks around.
This is Game of Thrones actor Indira Varma, who played Ellaria Sand, leader of the Sand Snakes. Varma is clad in Imperial Officer gear and arrives on Tatooine. We’re going to guess she’s in charge of overseeing the Inquisitors—although the Inquisitors don’t respond well to any sort of authoritative flex from Imperial bureaucrats.
Here’s another look at Friend’s Grand Inquisitor, complete with him flexing his spinny red lightsaber. GI’s animation-to-live-action transition leaves a little to be desired, as the more cylinder-like head shape seen in Star Wars Rebels is gone.
Here’s a great look at Sung Kang’s Fifth Brother on a planet that looks a lot like Coruscant, the galaxy’s political capital. It’ll be fun to see Kang in a villainous role after playing a hero in the Fast movies. Either way, this footage is a good sign we won’t be stuck on Tatooine the whole time.
Star Wars sure loves a good bit of Western iconography, so it’s good to see that used to great effect here—down to Obi-Wan rocking with a blaster instead of a lightsaber. (Much easier to keep oneself hidden if you’re not fighting with a giant glowing indicator that you’re a Jedi.) But as dangerous as Reva and the rest of the Inquisitors may seem, they’re small fries compared to Darth Vader, whose iconic breathing we hear forebodingly at the end of the trailer. With Hayden Christensen confirmed to return, it’s only a matter of time before the Master runs into his Apprentice for the rematch of the century. We’ll see it soon enough when the limited series premieres at the end of May.