Obi-Wan Kenobi

We look back at the Star Wars history of Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, originated by Alec Guinness and played in 'Obi-Wan Kenobi' by Ewan McGregor.

It has already been established that some characters from the animated “Star Wars Rebels” will be playing a part in the limited Obi-Wan series. While any crossover seems unlikely, viewers will just have to wait and see if any other familiar faces appear in “Obi-Wan Kenobi.” But McGregor in the prequels is “all the things that you would not have imagined Obi-Wan could have been”: “Alec Guinness’ Obi-Wan is the finished article. Now known as the Darth Vader, the character’s shadow is felt across the series. McGregor himself noted during the Lucasfilm presentation at Star Wars Celebration on Thursday that there seemed to be no love for the prequel films at the time of their release. An unexpected detour during a mission brings them to Tatooine, where they meet the young, exceptionally Force-sensitive Anakin Skywalker.

West Coast viewers will be able to stream the first two episodes of the show, starring Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen, starting at 9 p.m. PT. Originally, ...

After Joby Harold (“Army of the Dead”) was hired to take over, the six-episode series was delayed again due to the pandemic. The Disney+ series is the culmination of years of planning at Lucasfilm to revive McGregor’s performance as Obi-Wan from the “Star Wars” prequel trilogy. early,” the tweet reads. The actor finally confirmed the news to great fanfare at the D23 Expo in August 2019, but a planned shoot in 2020 with “The Mandalorian” director Deborah Chow was delayed when the original head writer, Hossein Amini (“The Alienist”), left the production. The news was announced in a tweet from the official “Star Wars” account. “Start streaming the first two episodes TONIGHT at 9 p.m. PT on @Disneyplus.”

The first two episodes, starring Ewan McGregor, are arriving earlier than expected.

- Episode 6: Available Wednesday, June 22 -- 12 a.m. PT (3 a.m. ET/7 a.m. GMT) - Episode 5: Available Wednesday, June 15 -- 12 a.m. PT (3 a.m. ET/7 a.m. GMT) - Episode 4: Available Wednesday, June 8 -- 12 a.m. PT (3 a.m. ET/7 a.m. GMT) - Episode 3: Available Wednesday, June 1 -- 12 a.m. PT (3 a.m. ET/7 a.m. GMT) The first of the six episodes was originally scheduled to premiere on Disney Plus on May 25. The show, going by the Jedi Master's name, will pick up 10 years after the events of Revenge of the Sith.

Obi-Wan Kenobi director Deborah Chow breaks down the making of the new Disney+ Star Wars series and why she can't wait for fans to see the finale.

So that was a bit of a trick, but I think just in terms of the approach on it, you want the scenes to feel very dynamic and you want to get the heart rate up and we're all excited to kind of get to do them and to see them. So it's something that I feel is quite important of making sure that the character and all the emotion is there at the same time as the action and the physicality. CHOW: I think in terms of approaching the action, especially with the lightsaber stuff, obviously with the Inquisitors we're into a whole new set of lightsabers and different actions that we haven't seen in live action, that was pretty exciting. There's a lot of great stuff out there, but I think one thing that was really quite meaningful, was there's a statue of Kenobi during this period, a Sideshow statue that it really sort of felt visually like it encapsulated what the feel of the character was at this moment. But I think the thing for me that's always made action feel the strongest, is when it comes out of character and that it's not just action for action's sake. But I mean, for me, honestly, for this series, I tried to do the vast majority of it because it's something I feel actually is very important to do. I'm excited for the fans to get there and see the whole journey come to its end. And the thing about Disney+ is some series are 30 minutes and some series are an hour. And that actually became quite a reference that I would continue to go back and look at visually. So I think if you do have time to watch one thing, the prequels would certainly be a help in understanding the show. It's tricky because obviously we are so in the middle of two trilogies with these big legacy characters, but as much as possible, Joby, who's the writer and I, when we were doing the development, we really were trying to make sure that we'd always do a reality check to go, "If we take the Star Wars out of this, does this still work, just on a human level?" CHOW: From the time that I've been involved, honestly, Darth Maul has never actually been part of the conversation.

Fans at Star Wars Celebration shared their thoughts on the first two episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi.

While no spoilers have made it to the public yet, Lucasfilm and Disney surprised fans by releasing the first two episodes on Disney+ at 9PM PST instead of its usual midnight slot. "Obi-Wan Kenobi first reactions, Ewan McGregor brings the emotion as an older Kenobi. His eye acting is next level. "The first 2 episodes of Kenobi are amazing. "Obi-Wan Kenobi gets off to a great start. A brilliant artist." With this series having been in development for most of the past three years, anticipation is at an all-time high to see the former Jedi Master take the spotlight once again.

The first two episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi are live on Disney+, and they are full of surprises.

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. 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+. 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. 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. 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. 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.

Flea (of the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers) makes a surprise appearance in the 'Obi-Wan Kenobi' premiere. Here's how he helps establish the show's ...

In the moment, this seems pretty normal, but Kenobi is fighting dirty. More interesting, perhaps, is what Obi-Wan does to survive. But if you’re wondering who Flea plays in Kenobi\ or why his character matters, here’s what you need to know.

We've got everything else you need below to catch the latest Star Wars show the second it drops on Disney Plus, with the exact time you can expect the episodes ...

Obi-Wan Kenobi is dropping a new episode on Disney Plus weekly, following its double season premiere. so keep refreshing that landing page to catch the episodes the second they drop! That means you can watch episodes 1 and 2 together straightaway.

Early reactions to Ewan McGregor's Disney+ Star Wars TV mini series suggest the force is strong with this one.

ComicBook’s Brandon Davis had a similar response, telling his followers Obi-Wan Kenobi was “really surprising! Meanwhile, Total Film attended an early screening of Obi-Wan Kenobi and gave it a thumbs up on Twitter: “Wow, what a start” they said, adding intriguingly that the first episode “pulls Obi into the action in a very unexpected way.” It’s McGregor’s first time back in the Jedi gown for 17 year since 2005’s Revenge of the Sith, and Obi-Wan Kenobi will fill in the character’s unknown back story between the events of that film and 1977’s A New Hope.

The latest Star Wars spin-off from Disney+ sees the Scot put in his best performance as the legendary Jedi in a John Wick-esque caper with marvellous action ...

It’s the sort of character and performance that would usually deserve its own spin-off, even if it didn’t exist in the world of modern Star Wars, where every single character who ever appears onscreen is all but guaranteed a full series about their origin story. In the prequel series they often overwhelmed McGregor’s performance, but here, he wears them lightly, letting some of his natural charisma seep through. The series actually starts to justify its own existence. The story goes that this series started life as a film. Post-Lucas Star Wars exists almost exclusively to bulk out thin gruel, joining various dots that didn’t need to be joined, for the delight of a quickly ageing fanbase. Kenobi left Anakin Skywalker for dead a decade ago and, realistically, it’s another decade before the events of Star Wars: A New Hope.

Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers kidnaps young Princess Leia (Vivien Lyra Blair) in Star Wars show 'Obi-Wan Kenobi' on Disney+.

So much so that Obi-Wan dredges up his old lightsaber and embarks on a perilous journey to the planet of Daiyu to find the girl. Obi-Wan Kenobi is of course the long-waited Star Wars series set in the gap between Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and the original Star Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope. It’s been ten years since Obi-Wan ( Ewan McGregor) took the high ground from his padawan/brother Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen). Since defeating the Sith Lord Darth Vader, Obi-Wan has been laying low on Tatooine, where he’s been prioritizing looking after young Luke Skywalker (Grant Feely) and sneaking his eopie choice cuts of meat. By now Star Wars fans have become used to seeing all sorts of cool folks pop up in their Disney+ shows, but Obi-Wan Kenobi just went full rock ‘n roll.

But it wasn't all dunes and desert towns. A surprisingly large portion of the episode took place on Alderaan and showcased Vivien Lyra Blair's young Leia Organa ...

It was a shock to see the former Jedi General eking out a miserable existence as a desert butcher, clearly full of regret and bitterness for not being able to save Anakin or prevent the rise of the Empire. Obi-Wan Kenobi has finally arrived on Disney Plus, and it hasn’t disappointed. But it wasn’t all dunes and desert towns.

"Obi-Wan Kenobi" starring Ewan McGregor premieres its first two episodes today on Disney Plus today (May 27).

The rest of the main cast includes Rupert Friend (The Grand Inquisitor), Moses Ingram (Seventh Sister), Sung Kang (Fifth Brother), Joel Edgerton (Owen Lars), Bonnie Piesse (Beru Lars), and Grant Feely (Luke Skywalker). Darth Vader will be a vital addition to the drama and speculation has run rampant that we'll see a confrontation with his former master, whose skills might be a bit rusty after ten years in exile. These heartless assassins report directly to the Grand Inquisitor and are headed up by Fifth Brother and Seventh Sister, who were previously introduced in "Star Wars: Rebels" Season 2.

What was Obi-Wan Kenobi up to during those years when he was watching over Luke Skywalker after the Republic's fall in "Revenge of the Sith?"

That scenario also creates plenty of opportunities for callbacks that, in a theatrical setting, would have fans whooping and hollering. He watches the young Luke from a respectable distance, which is still too close to suit the boy's Uncle Owen (Joel Edgerton), who well remembers how he ended up with the lad in his care. Those considerations aside, the Disney+ series presents subscribers what feels like a wonderful distraction, no Jedi mind tricks required.

Obi-Wan Kenobi's two-part premiere is a surprisingly weighty introduction to an emotional Star Wars story.

The whole two-part premiere is full of this intertwined scripting; the links between Obi-Wan, Leia, her kidnappers, and Reva all make for a show that feels nicely coherent and planned. But chase sequences and shootouts so far feel simple and workhorse compared to the best of The Mandalorian’s action direction. I really like that Kenobi’s emotional path is mirrored by his physical one, and the match cut between his and Vader’s face at the end of the two-part premiere provided the perfect chilling indicator of this. This moment is the first nudge; Obi-Wan needs to return to the ways of the Jedi. He needs to help people. She helps provide a little levity among an otherwise surprisingly serious slice of Star Wars. The same can be said about Kumail Nanjiani, who brings his usual charm to grifter Haja Estree. On Tatooine he refuses to help another Jedi escape from the inquisition because he doesn’t want to risk his semi-selfish mission of watching over Luke. That Jedi’s corpse is next seen strung up in the streets in a shot that highlights Chow’s ability to bring darkness without being inappropriately violent for this kind of show. This promises a real treat of an emotional and physical showdown later down the line, and I hope Obi-Wan Kenobi can deliver on that promise. The two-part premiere opens a series that is surprisingly complex and unexpectedly mature; a slice of Star Wars that feels heavy and layered. But while vital to the journey, the ongoing hunt for the final surviving Jedi is just the broad picture. Opening as Order 66 is initiated, this is a show about living amid the death of one age, and the start of a darker one. His new camp on Tatooine has been established not to watch over Luke because he represents hope for the future, but through an inability to let go of one of the remaining links to his fallen brother. George Lucas envisioned the Empire as a reflection of many things, but Obi-Wan Kenobi really leans into the Nazi parallels.

SPOILER ALERT: This review contains details of the first two episodes of Disney+'s Obi-Wan Kenobi series. The Force is not strong with Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Which, no matter how much Lawrence of Arabia you mix in with the original Blade Runner, some Matrix and an unseen Home Alone sequel, wilts faster than an orchid under the grueling twin suns of Tatooine. A demise made all the more scorched by the fact that significant swaths of Obi-Wan have a mid-1990s syndication cheapness to them, with slightly better lighting. Debuting a few hours earlier than anticipated on Disney+, the first two episodes of the Ewan McGregor starring miniseries are almost all undiluted nostalgia with no wisdom to impart and not much of a story to tell. Yet, as George Lucas learned the lucrative way, a little bit of Joseph Campbell can be good for the myth but bad for the execution.

The dual-episode premiere of the first non-Mandalorian-based Star Wars Disney Plus series has arrived, Obi-Wan Kenobi, which has expanded its name from just ...

Ewan McGregor is finally getting something to work with in terms of a script, an upgrade from the prequels. Leia rebels against her stuffy upbringing, and appears to be exhibiting at least mildly force-like symptoms where she can read people’s fears to a certain extent, disguised as being observant. The series was given to Mandalorian director Deborah Chow, and so far, it’s going pretty well.

It doesn't break new 'Star Wars' ground but Ewan McGregor is a Jedi sort of 'John Wick' in his galactic return in new Disney+ series 'Obi-Wan Kenobi.'

If "Star Wars" fans are going to see a new angle to things they know, it should be with a beloved familiar face. Fans will get a kick out of familiar characters (especially one in particular) who show up in “Kenobi"; more impressive are the subtle reflections of well-known scenes that add thematic depth. While it doesn’t break any huge new “Star Wars” ground, at least not yet – we’ll see what happens in the next four episodes (streaming weekly beginning Wednesday) – the series nicely bridges the gap between the prequels and the original trilogy and hints at some political intrigue within the evil Empire.

Disney's latest Star Wars spin-off show has been hotly anticipated for the return of Ewan McGregor as the Jedi Knight – and it mostly lives up to the hype, ...

Obi-Wan Kenobi runs the same risk here, but justifies itself by being the first Disney+ Star Wars series to feel like a main Star Wars story, rather than some offcut, with its centring of lead characters from the films. The closing shot shows a burnt and scarred Vader in a bacta tank, giving us our first glimpse of the returning Hayden Christensen, who reprises his role as Anakin. It's no secret that they will fight again in this series, which has attracted some concern that it could undercut the significance of their duel in 1977's A New Hope – again, making the universe feel smaller. A recurring problem with Disney's era of Star Wars spin-off films and TV shows has been that the more gaps they fill in the overarching timeline, the more backstory of big characters that is illuminated, the smaller and less interesting the universe becomes. Whatever the reason for it, this reappraisal is evidently a driver for the latest Disney+ Star Wars show, Obi-Wan Kenobi, a slick six-part series that seeks to explore what happened to the Jedi Master after the harrowing events of 2005's Revenge of the Sith. The show even begins with a recap of the prequels. Obi-Wan is eventually forced into action by episode one's big surprise: the kidnap of a 10-year-old Princess Leia, played with an endearing precociousness by Bird Box's Vivien Lyra Blair. Obi-Wan, who is one of the few people in the galaxy aware of her importance, is approached by her adoptive father Bail Organa (Jimmy Smits reprising his prequel role) to rescue her. This, of course, could simply be a case of millennial nostalgia, although I would say it is also founded on a valid sense of appreciation for movies that – while undeniably flawed in execution – are rich in the kind of cohesion and ideas that Disney's sequel trilogy sorely lacked.

Deborah Chow believes that 'Obi-Wan Kenobi' can be enjoyed by those who are unfamiliar with the 'Star Wars' films.

Is this the vindication prequel fans have been looking for? For years, George Lucas's Star Wars prequel trilogy has been subjected to derision, cast as the ...

If The Mandalorian sometimes erred on the side of self-conscious spareness and The Book of Boba Fett was more a playful feast of characters, creatures, and action than a well-organized and well-paced story, the first episode of Obi-Wan seems to try for a just-right mix of the two, merging the sense of isolation with a more clear narrative direction. You were once a great Jedi.” In fact, when it comes time for Obi-Wan to reunite with familiar faces, like Luke’s Uncle Owen (Joel Edgerton) or Leia’s dad Bail Organa (Jimmy Smits), the show actually becomes clunkier and less expressive. It’s probably too much to hope that a saga-centric, legacy-character Star Wars series could ever allow real detective-style detours, but Obi-Wan tracking down a young Leia at least gets him back on a case (albeit one that’s a mystery only to him). Instead, it looks toward Alderaan, where a 10-year-old Princess Leia (Vivien Lyra Blair) is already rebelling against her adopted parents, complete with her own sidekick droid, a nonspeaking Batteries Not Included–looking contraption called Lola. She’s soon kidnapped and taken off-planet for the first time in what turns out to be an attempt to lure Obi-Wan out of hiding. Despite being one of the longer episodes of Star Wars TV to date, this feels more like a complete (if obviously serialized) episode than much of Fett. And while none of these shows have really attempted to approximate George Lucas’s maximalism, Chow has a stronger command of quasi-western minimalism than Jon Favreau. But, hello there: Obi-Wan Kenobi is a whole other world of prequel affirmation, bringing back trilogy MVP Ewan McGregor and a number of other prequel actors to star in what is, essentially, a sidelong sequel to Revenge of the Sith. McGregor’s Obi-Wan has more breathing room, and the first chapter of his new story excels when it accumulates silent details and small interactions from his lonely routine. The Grand Inquisitor obviously enjoys speechifying to the citizens of Tatooine — he’s the one who coins the line about tracking a Jedi’s “trail of compassion” — while Reva has her sights set specifically on terrorizing her way toward Obi-Wan for reasons that are as yet unclear but thoroughly irritate her bosses. (The filmmakers were probably aiming for a jumble of imagery showing both their brotherly closeness and tragic outcomes, but I like to imagine Obi-Wan still wakes up in a cold sweat over Anakin’s reckless, sick-making pilot moves. Take Nari, for example, the excitable young lightsaber-wielder played by Uncut Gems filmmaker Benny Safdie: He’s mostly there to serve as a cautionary tale as he’s ferreted out by the Grand Inquisitor (Rupert Friend) and his Jedi-hunting team, including the mysterious Reva (Moses Ingram), who takes her job very seriously. The connection is made explicit from the very first scene of Obi-Wan, which might as well be a particularly elegant deleted scene from Sith. Full-series director Deborah Chow (who helmed two episodes of The Mandalorian, among other big-name TV projects) opens with a previously unseen sequence of clone troopers attacking a Jedi and her youngling students. Yet through a combination of younger fans who grew up on these films and a general thirst for big-canvas fantasy movies with evidence of someone’s, anyone’s, personal sensibility, the trilogy has begun something of a reputational turnaround in recent years.

Obi-Wan Kenobi is now streaming on Disney Plus, and the six-episode-long series fills in the gaps between the original Star Wars trilogy and the prequels.

The dude looks rough (though better than I would after a decade of hard desert living), and one of the show’s highlights so far has been watching him wrestle with the hard-wired instinct to be a hero. This, it turns out, is all part of the Third Sister’s plot to lure Obi-Wan out of hiding by appealing to his inherent need to help people. Eventually, her propensity for running off gets her in trouble when a gang of outlaws (the leader of whom is played by Flea, the bass player for the Red Hot Chili Peppers) kidnaps her. She has no interest in the royal life, though, and spends most of her time shirking responsibilities to play with a cute droid named Lola in the woods. You don’t have to worry about midi-chlorians or Watto. All that matters is the tumultuous and tragic relationship between Obi-Wan and Anakin. After the recap, the show then shifts to the tragedy at the Jedi Temple so that you remember why Obi-Wan is hiding. And for the first two episodes, at least, it works — Obi-Wan is playing the hits, reminding me why I actually care about Star Wars to begin with.

The acting's better than the prequels (although it was a low bar), the Daiyu mission's a Blade Runner-channelling joy and Disney have nailed the Inquisitors ...

And who are the people he sent Obi-Wan to meet? As the old Jedi, not in fighting shape, had no choice but to get stuck in against much younger opposition, while taking care of a slightly annoying youngster, I was once again reminded of a cowboy movie, this time perhaps True Grit. To the episode proper, and we returned to the Jedi Temple during the events of Order 66. A quick jump 10 years in the future, and two shots of cold exposition from the barman later (Yes, people watching who haven’t seen Star Wars Rebels, those people with the strange hats are Inquisitors, and they hunt Jedi), we were reunited with Nari, one of the five escapers. Not to damn the whole thing with the faintest of praise, but this is his best Star Wars performance yet. Welcome to the first of our Obi-Wan Kenobi episode recaps.

Disney Plus' latest Star Wars spin-off arrives with a somewhat surprising appearance from a certain princess.

And hey, the episode ends with Obi-Wan learning from Reva that Vader is indeed still alive, and we get a hard cut to a wrinkled and roasted Anakin floating in a tub with a breathing mask on. Extremely precocious and cute, like a Star Wars version of Anya from Spy X Family, and I like that her precociousness actually becomes a problem for Obi-Wan when she immediately figures out that he’s a Jedi and that the bad guys are coming after her to get to him. The good news is that the second episode is a lot more interesting and exciting than the first one, with Obi-Wan using the Game Boy Advance he stashed in his secret Jedi box to track Leia to Los Angeles from Blade Runner, or at least the Star Wars version of it. This is where the show runs into a bunch of Star Wars canon problems that it just creates for itself out of a desire to give Obi-Wan something to do beyond sit in a desert until the events of the original movie. Obi-Wan initially refuses, but after seeing Nari dead and strung up in the middle of town he gives in and agrees to break his oath to keep an eye on Luke so he can go save Leia. “The time of the Jedi is over, he says.” But, like Reva said, he’ll have to scratch that itch eventually.

How do you keep up the suspense in a story, when the audience already pretty much knows how it ends?

You may click on “Your Choices” below to learn about and use cookie management tools to limit use of cookies when you visit NPR’s sites. If you click “Agree and Continue” below, you acknowledge that your cookie choices in those tools will be respected and that you otherwise agree to the use of cookies on NPR’s sites. NPR’s sites use cookies, similar tracking and storage technologies, and information about the device you use to access our sites (together, “cookies”) to enhance your viewing, listening and user experience, personalize content, personalize messages from NPR’s sponsors, provide social media features, and analyze NPR’s traffic.

Disney+'s 'Obi-Wan Kenobi' show, starring Ewan McGregor, tells not just Ben's origin story, but Leia Organa's.

Unlike many other “Star Wars” series, though, this one doesn’t need to try too hard to establish itself as something different. And so by the end of the second episode, “Obi-Wan Kenobi” sets the stage to become its own play on “The Mandalorian” dynamic, in which a formidable warrior begrudgingly takes on a gifted younger charge who will inevitably charm him into loyal submission. It helps, too, that “Obi-Wan Kenobi” takes a left turn from the perhaps more expected route of Ben keeping a close eye on 10 year-old Luke (Grant Feely) and his wary guardian uncle, Owen (Joel Edgerton, following Smits by reprising his role from the prequels). Instead, the first episode splits its time between Tatooine and Alderaan, where Luke’s scrappy twin Leia (Vivien Lyra Blair) is doing her best to make stately princess life more interesting. In its first two episodes, which dropped May 27 on Disney+, “Obi-Wan Kenobi” takes a narrative leaf out of “The Last Jedi”’s book. The extensive recap of the “Star Wars” prequels that opens the new “Obi-Wan Kenobi” series is as utilitarian as it is canny. For as many “Star Wars” projects as there are in development, this one’s characters and mythology are the most directly tied to the original story that launched a thousand starfighters, making this show a bridge between one trilogy and the next.

The episodes were released days after the mass shooting that killed 21 at an elementary school in the Texas town.

In deleted scenes that have since been leaked online, Monica and Chandler get detained at an airport after Chandler makes a joke about a bomb on the plane. Some fans of the ABC sitcom Abbott Elementary took to Twitter in the wake of the tragedy to request that a school-shooting episode be written, which was quickly shut down by the show’s creator and lead Quinta Brunson. “people are that deeply removed from demanding more from the politicians they've elected and are instead demanding ‘entertainment,’” she tweeted. “I can't ask ‘are yall ok"’ anymore because the answer is ‘no.’ ”

We are in an era of increasing reliance on familiarity to sell new movies and TV shows. “Remember how much you loved this!?!? Please love it again!

Explore this universe (and, to be fair, the second episode does a little of that setting shifting and yet still comes back to a few "High Noon" stand-offs in the street.) On the one hand, the ensemble is up for the challenge of telling a new story instead of just a familiar one. Everything changes for Obi-Wan when Leia Organa ( Vivien Lyra Blair) is kidnapped from her home planet of Alderaan by a group of bounty hunters (that includes Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers!) Leia’s guardians—Breha ( Simone Kessell) and Bail Organa ( Jimmy Smits)—reach out to Obi-Wan and ask him to track down the missing child. “Obi-Wan Kenobi” opens ten years after the events of “Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith.” Kenobi ( Ewan McGregor) is basically in hiding on Tatooine, keeping an eye on young Luke from a distance, while Jedis are hunted around the galaxy under Order 66. Please love it again!” The Disney+ Marvel and Star Wars shows have been criticized as fan service before but the two-part premiere of “Obi-Wan Kenobi” struggles more than any other property to date to develop its own personality outside of the two famous trilogies it seeks to connect (and even a hit Disney+ Star Wars show in its protector/child dynamic). However, this is a case wherein reviewing a show like director Deborah Chow and showrunner Joby Harold’s blockbuster series after only two episodes is almost impossible. One hopes that the first two episodes have gotten the callbacks out of the way and that the program will develop its own personality now, but there’s little evidence here that this will actually happen.

With a promise to reunite Kenobi with the Sith Lord Darth Vader, and introducing Vader's Inquisitorius into live action, fans are in for a thrilling story. The ...

The first two episodes are now streaming, with subsequent installments of the six-episode season premiering every Wednesday in June. - Get a refresher on the history of the character withObi-101 Obi-Wan Kenobi, the new limited series set between the events of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: A New Hope, has arrived on Disney+! With a promise to reunite Kenobi with the Sith Lord Darth Vader, and introducing Vader’s Inquisitorius into live action, fans are in for a thrilling story.

InIn Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Jedi Master Yoda tells Luke Skywalker not to judge others based on appearances, which is a little rich coming from ...

The Mandalorian set the example for a huge first episode reveal in Star Wars TV — something the Western monthly-publishing comics industry has embraced as simply the best way to start a serial story — and also did so by introducing a tiny version of a character from the original trilogy. It boggles the mind that Lucasfilm and Disney teased Luke’s appearance in Obi-Wan rather than Leia’s. Unless, of course, they thought the audience was more interested in Luke for … some reason … It’s not the only way that Obi-Wan, or at least the first two episodes of it, commits to showing instead of telling. In the first episode of its two episode premiere, Obi-Wan Kenobi reveals that it is something significantly different. Blair’s delivery alternates smoothly between age-appropriate naïveté and the sureness of the leader of a hard-core national student protest movement — which is, of course, what her character will essentially be in just a few years. After the premiere of Obi-Wan Kenobi, viewers might be feeling a similar mix of emotions.

The new 'Obi-Wan Kenobi' series features a couple of hilariously unconvincing chase scenes.

How hard is it to deliver a solid chase scene in an adrenaline-packed space opera? This is the first time we’ve seen spent any significant time with young Leia, and she’s as whip-smart and sassy as her adult self. The first episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi shines a light on young Princess Leia, played by Lyra Blair, giving fans a glimpse of her life on Alderaan, which is doomed to be incinerated by the Death Star in the original trilogy.

How do you keep up the suspense in a story, when the audience already pretty much knows how it ends?

Star Wars fans may still fall in love with a show that returns to a beloved fictional universe to tell an exciting new chapter. (Another bit of stunt casting, using the Red Hot Chili Peppers' bassist Flea as a thuggish kidnapper, didn't work quite so well.) Even though he looks like he'd gleefully squash any being on Tatooine dumb enough to get in his way, The Grand Inquisitor constantly heckles Sevander for being too impulsive and harsh. And don't get me started on how the Jedi Knights' robes, spirituality and lightsabers all feel like they were originally lifted from Asian culture without including many Asian characters. But when Sevander threatens Owen's life and the lives of his family, promising to kill them all if the community doesn't reveal where Kenobi is, we know that's not going to happen. Some of the mistakes are small.

The new series following Ewan McGregor's beloved take on the character is the best prospect the franchise has had in some time.

He’s pragmatic and direct, and Guinness’s distinctive, slightly nasal tenor gives him an air of amused detachment in any but the most dire of circumstances. Star Wars’ track record for prequels, or inter-quels, or whatever the hell Obi-Wan Kenobi is, is spotty, but the show has one major advantage on its side: Obi-Wan himself. Anyone with passing familiarity with Star Wars knows this; and while a story doesn’t need life or death stakes to be entertaining, there’s something curious about a sci-fi fantasy adventure series where the potential for consequences is largely existential.

What feels a bit like 'Taken' in space pivots to “'John Wick: Chapter 2' in space” territory — and it works! A recap of “Part Two” of 'Obi-Wan Kenobi,' the ...

(Well, from a certain point of view.) With Reva distracted by stabbing the Grand Inquisitor, Leia and Kenobi just barely escape thanks to a tip from Haja. Despite Kenobi’s disdain, there’s an unspoken irony here: At this point, Haja has done just as much to help as the real Jedi in this situation. Alas, the impressive menagerie of merchants and weirdos on Daiyu does not seem to include a single toydarian. A premise that looked, in the previous episode and the beginning of this one, a bit like Taken in space quickly turns into John Wick territory. Again, Obi-Wan Kenobi shows more mastery of its serialization than The Book of Boba Fett: The show leaves another planet and leaves its lead character with a major revelation about the friend-turned-enemy he once thought dead. Let’s not worry about the future, though; Obi-Wan has enough of that, with echoes of his past threatening to become deafening. This turns out to be Haja Estree ( Kumail Nanjiani), who uses a cocktail of buzzwords, misdirection, and magnets to create the impression that he is, well, exactly who some might hope Obi-Wan would be: an exiled Jedi with the power to help the downtrodden and oppressed. Obi-Wan Kenobi wants to relieve him of that burden and make him sound a little more, well, normal. (Today, we call them actors.) Yet the language of Lucas provided Obi-Wan with some odd grace notes, whether bringing humanity to the banter and bickering with teenaged Anakin, smug Jedi elan to his derring-do (“Hello there”; “Senator Palpatine, Sith lords are our specialty”), or flashes of self-doubt (“Oh no, not good,” he mutters just before a scuffle with Jango Fett sends him hurtling off a roof). Yes, there’s plenty of unwieldy exposition in the prequels, but McGregor has a way of clipping and refining it. The space between them is filled with Obi-Wan lampshading her precociousness by asking, “How old are you?” even though Leia’s age should be pretty well burned into his memory, considering he was present for her birth. (And he does, albeit for an exorbitant price and perhaps less physical safety than a real Jedi could offer.) Great concept, medium execution: Nanjiani is both amusing and a reminder that these new Star Wars shows are written by pro screenwriters, less prone to flights of bizarre, perhaps accidental poetry. For all of his imaginative gifts as a filmmaker, Lucas frequently seemed decidedly uncomfortable with both the music of human communication and the cursed flesh prisons he was (sometimes) forced to use to speak it. In its second episode, Obi-Wan Kenobi makes clear that this will not be Boba Fett redux, with Kenobi puttering around the sand, brokering alliances with various gangsters.

How do you keep up the suspense in a story, when the audience already pretty much knows how it ends?

Star Wars fans may still fall in love with a show that returns to a beloved fictional universe to tell an exciting new chapter. (Another bit of stunt casting, using the Red Hot Chili Peppers' bassist Flea as a thuggish kidnapper, didn't work quite so well.) Even though he looks like he'd gleefully squash any being on Tatooine dumb enough to get in his way, The Grand Inquisitor constantly heckles Sevander for being too impulsive and harsh. And don't get me started on how the Jedi Knights' robes, spirituality and lightsabers all feel like they were originally lifted from Asian culture without including many Asian characters. But when Sevander threatens Owen's life and the lives of his family, promising to kill them all if the community doesn't reveal where Kenobi is, we know that's not going to happen. Some of the mistakes are small.

For too long — and probably still — Star Wars has been unable to quit Luke Skywalker. The hero of George Lucas' original films, portrayed by Mark Hamill, was a ...

As of the end of episode 2, Obi-Wan is driven by a new purpose: To once again face Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen), either to appeal to any lingering good in him or battle him now, as Darth Vader. In episode 1 we see Obi-Wan almost fail to give in to that compulsion, telling the Organas that he must stay on Tatooine instead of going after Leia’s kidnappers. A de-aged Hamill (action performed by Max Lloyd-Jones) was a pleasant surprise in “The Mandalorian” Season 2, but overwrought when he became the ostensible purpose of “The Book of Boba Fett.” There’s an unshakeable but not overpowering awareness that this character is emotionally manipulating viewers, but she’s cheeky and charming and pairs nicely with McGregor’s Obi-Wan at this specific moment in his life — and look at that little braided bun, come on. After one scene in which Obi-Wan (Ewan McGregor) spies on him from afar, child Luke is seen no more. About 23 minutes into the premiere of “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” an old Star Wars friend shows up.

Bloodless violence has been a part of the Star Wars franchise since Grand Moff Tarkin showed off the might of the Death Star by turning Alderaan into space ...

A Disney rep also told Entertainment Weekly that the company is “also working to add an advisory in front of the series as quickly as possible.” This, coming as the nation is still in collective shock from the massacre in Uvalde, Texas, caused a bit of an understandable stir for a family-friendly television event. But as Obi-Wan Kenobi, the newest series from that galaxy far, far away made its debut this week on Disney+ and at Anaheim’s Star Wars Celebration pep rally, the timing wasn’t so hot for the first episode’s initial scene.

Disney+ is the latest streaming service to add a warning label to some of its content in the wake of a mass shooting at a Texas elementary school.

For more information about cross-device matching, please visit the Network Advertising Initiative or the Digital Advertising Alliance. If you opt out of cross-device tracking for advertising purposes, we may still conduct cross-device tracking for other purposes, such as analytics. Information may still be collected and used for other purposes, such as research, online services analytics or internal operations, and to remember your opt-out preferences. Ad Selection and Delivery Cookies: These Cookies are used to collect data about your browsing habits, your use of the Services, your preferences, and your interaction with advertisements across platforms and devices for the purpose of delivering interest-based advertising content on the Services and on third-party sites. Social media platforms have the ability to track your online activity outside of the Services. This may impact the content and messages you see on other services you visit. Connected Devices: For connected devices, such as smart TVs or streaming devices, you should review the device’s settings and select the option that allows you to disable automatic content recognition or ad tracking. Browser Controls: You may be able to disable and manage some Cookies through your browser settings. Flash cookies need to be deleted in the storage section of your Flash Player Settings Manager. Third-party sites and services also use interest-based Advertising Cookies to deliver content, including advertisements relevant to your interests on the Services and third-party services. They are also used to recognize you and provide further insights across platforms and devices for the above purposes. You should read the Privacy Policy and this Notice for a full picture of NBCUniversal’s use of your information. Measurement and Analytics: These Cookies collect data regarding your usage of and performance of the Services, apply market research to generate audiences, and measure the delivery and effectiveness of content and advertising. You can set your browser to block these Cookies, but some parts of the site may not function properly.

Ewan McGregor and Vivien Lyra Blair form a fun double act as a broken Jedi faces a pacey new adventure on Disney Plus.

Taking place between the end of Revenge of the Sith and the beginning of A New Hope, it's both a prequel and a sequel to a prequel. The story cleverly strips this beloved character back to a shell, and in the hands of an actor as good as Ewan McGregor it's a moving journey to watch. The interplay between McGregor and feisty Vivien Lyra Blair are a lot of fun as the opening episodes set up the show along similar lines to The Mandalorian, in which our tough hero took Baby Yoda under his wing. But more than any recent Star Wars shows, it's built from Star Wars at its best (the original film) and Star Wars at its worst (the overblown, computer-effects-blighted prequel trilogy). And it follows the stodgy Book of Boba Fett, another tale of a familiar Star Wars mainstay which undid some of the goodwill around streaming hit The Mandalorian. It features Proper Movie Star Ewan McGregor wielding both a beard and a lightsaber, and focuses on one of the most engaging characters in the whole Star Wars saga. Obi-Wan Kenobi (the show) is an assured, pacey and exciting new series with a great cast, from creators who know how to use familiar elements -- and, crucially, how to hold some back -- in a story that is, most importantly, character-driven.