With Disney Plus’ new series The Book of Boba Fett having come to an epic end, the streaming platform has finally confirmed an official release date for the next Star Wars series, Obi-Wan Kenobi.
And that’s not all. A new poster for Obi-Wan Kenobi has now been unveiled, giving fans a first look at Ewan McGregor reprising his role from the Star Wars prequel movies.
The poster shows the legendary Jedi master Obi-Wan wandering through the sandy desert of Tatooine but, with not much about the show confirmed yet, fans will have to wait for the movie’s release to discover where he’s heading.
Obi-Wan Kenobi, a limited Original series, starts streaming May 25 on @DisneyPlus. pic.twitter.com/XCV1xQZhDR
— Star Wars (@starwars) February 9, 2022
Fans will also be thrilled to hear that McGregor will be reuniting with co-star Hayden Christensen in the upcoming series, as well as Joel Edgerton and Bonnie Piesse (who played a young Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru).
There may well be some surprises in the cast too, if recent teases are any indication, with McGregor dropping a big hint in conversation with chat show host Jimmy Kimmel.
“I got to play a very special scene on May 4th with someone very special in my life, and that’s all I can tell you about it,” he said in an interview from earlier this year.
The actor elaborated that this was someone he has never shared the screen with before, adding that they are also “not necessarily” a familial relation. Very interesting!
For anyone concerned that he could be pulling our leg and talking about himself, as Paul Bettany infamously did with his dual WandaVision role, rest assured that McGregor has appeared opposite himself before in the third season of Fargo (where he played twins).
Read on for everything you need to know about Obi-Wan Kenobi on Disney Plus.
Obi-Wan Kenobi release date
CONFIRMED: Obi-Wan Kenobi will be released on Disney Plus on 25th May 2022.
Star Wars fans will know this date has a specific meaning, since it was on that date in 1977 that the very first Star Wars movie, A New Hope, dropped in cinemas.
Filming officially wrapped on the big Star Wars project in September 2021.
“We finished shooting our series, and it was really, really good fun – I really enjoyed working with [director] Deborah Chow,” he told press (via Variety).
“I think it will not disappoint,” he added. “I think it’s gonna be good. I had a really good time making it, and worked with some really wonderful people, lovely people.
“The new technology we employed doing it is cool, and it was a different experience than making the original three films that I did.”
!["Ewan]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2020/06/Revenge_of_the_sith_obi_wan_Ewan_McGregor-4ec41bc.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413" "\"Revenge_of_the_sith_obi_wan_Ewan_McGregor\"")
Back in August 2020, Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy told The Wrap that the show was being developed as a limited series, meaning there may only be one season – although, that could change depending on fan response.
She said: “It’s been very exciting to see the talent that’s come in. And we’re now developing the limited Obi-Wan Kenobi series with Deborah Chow, and she’s just been doing a phenomenal job.”
Is there a trailer for Obi-Wan Kenobi?
We do not have an official trailer featuring footage of the series yet but we do have a behind-the-scenes video that was released by Disney Plus as part of their Disney Plus Day.
The clip has not been made free to view online but is available through the Disney Plus platform itself at the link here if you are already a subscriber to the streaming service.
!["Star]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2020/12/Darth-Vader-David-Prowse-cab4049.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C411" "\"Star")
The description for the video notes that the series is a “special event” that is set 10 years following the conclusion of Revenge of the Sith.
Kenobi will still be recovering from having lost his beloved apprentice Anakin Skywalker to the Sith.
Anakin now serves the Galactic Empire as the villainous and much-feared Darth Vader.
The video also shows off concept art for the series which teases another lightsaber duel between Kenobi and Vader.
“There’s a hunger for this character to come back,” comments McGregor in the clip . “The fans have been waiting long enough, you know?”
Teasing the battle between his character and Vader, he notes: “To have another swing at each other might be quite satisfying.”
Obi-Wan Kenobi series cast
Below is the confirmed cast list for the Disney Plus series Obi-Wan Kenobi.
- Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi
- Hayden Christensen as Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker
- Joel Edgerton as Owen Lars
- Bonnie Piesse as Beru Lars
- Moses Ingram as TBC
- Kumail Nanjiani as TBC
- Indira Varma as TBC
- Rupert Friend as TBC
- O’Shea Jackson Jr. as TBC
- Sung Kang as TBC
- Simone Kessell as TBC
- Benny Safdie as TBC
- Maya Erskine as TBC
Ewan McGregor will return to play Obi-Wan Kenobi once more. He debuted as the legendary Jedi in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, appearing in The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.
“I’m very excited to do it again – I’m probably more excited about it this time round,” McGregor told Radio Times. “I’m older, slightly wiser, maybe. The great fun part of it the first time was to try and be Alec Guinness, but younger. That was the acting challenge, as well as learning all the tricky fights.
“Now I’m much closer in age to him – I guess he was in his 60s when he made the first Star Wars film, and I’m about to be in my 50s. Don’t tell anybody! So now I’ll be able to bridge that gap a bit more, and it’ll be fun to find him in that place.”
At their epic investor presentation in December 2020, Disney confirmed what had long been rumoured: prequel trilogy co-star Hayden Christensen will reprise his role as Anakin Skywalker (later known as Darth Vader) for the limited series.
!["Hayden]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2021/03/revenge-of-the-sith-hayden-Christensen-ewan-McGregor-bbcf77e.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413" "\"revenge-of-the-sith-hayden-Christensen-ewan-McGregor\"")
“It was such an incredible journey playing Anakin Skywalker,” he said. “Of course, Anakin and Obi-Wan weren’t on the greatest of terms when we last saw them… It will be interesting to see what an amazing director like Deborah Chow has in store for us all. I’m excited to work with Ewan again. It feels good to be back.”
The news was confirmed in a tweet from the official Star Wars account, along with a first look at the show’s logo, which seems to make reference to the sands of Tatooine.
Hayden Christensen returns as Darth Vader, joining Ewan McGregor in OBI-WAN KENOBI. The Original Series begins 10 years after the dramatic events of Revenge of the Sith, and is coming to #DisneyPlus. pic.twitter.com/9WR2npRUkk
— Star Wars (@starwars) December 10, 2020
In March 2021, it was announced that Game of Thrones and Carnival Row star Indira Varma had joined the Obi-Wan Kenobi series in an undisclosed role, with the full cast being announced later that month.
In a social media post, Disney revealed that Joel Edgerton and Bonnie Piesse are set to reprise their roles as Beru and Owen Lars from the prequel trilogy, who take care of an infant Luke Skywalker after his father falls to the dark side.
New additions to the Star Wars family include Eternals star Kumail Nanjiani, The Queen’s Gambit‘s Moses Ingram, and in a surprise move, Uncut Gems co-director Benny Safdie.
Nanjiani teased his mystery role in an interview with Rolling Stone, revealing that his character is supposed to be a “little bit intimidated” by Obi-Wan Kenobi.
He continued: “The character sounded awesome — I was so excited about this character. We haven’t seen this exact thing in Star Wars yet. This is like a new version of a type of Star Wars character we’ve seen before.”
The star-studded cast also includes Rupert Friend (Homeland), O’Shea Jackson Jr (Straight Outta Compton), Sung Kang (Fast & Furious) and Simone Kessell (Terra Nova).
Production begins soon on Obi-Wan Kenobi, a special event series coming to #DisneyPlus. pic.twitter.com/GH3JBZxZDh
— Disney+ (@disneyplus) March 29, 2021
Many fans were hoping to see Liam Neeson reprise his role as Obi Wan’s Jedi master Qui-Gon Jinn in this miniseries, who was said to have finally become one with the force at the end of Revenge of the Sith.
This opens the door for him to appear as a force ghost, an idea that Neeson told Collider he’d be “up for”, but insisted over the summer that he has not been invited back for the project.
“I heard Ewan McGregor was going to do a series… no, I haven’t been approached,” he told Jimmy Kimmel Live, jokingly adding: “They don’t have enough money.”
Jar Jar Binks actor Ahmed Best has also ruled himself out of a cameo appearance, saying in a social media post: “Thanks for the love, but I will not be in this series. As much as I would’ve loved to be a part of it. But I’m ecstatic to see folks who I love dearly back together doing great things.”
There have also been rumours that Ahsoka Tano – Anakin’s padawan learner from the Clone Wars animated series – could make a cameo appearance as played by Rosario Dawson, but these remain entirely unconfirmed.
Obi-Wan Kenobi plot theories
!["Obi-Wan]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2021/04/Mark-Hamill-Alec-Guinness-6221f62.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413" "\"Mark")
The Obi-Wan series will take place 10 years after the events of 2005’s Revenge of the Sith, where we last saw Obi-Wan watching over Luke Skywalker, the secret child of Darth Vader, on Tatooine.
Relatively little plot details are known, but it appears that Obi-Wan Kenobi will once more face off against his fallen apprentice, in what producer Kathleen Kennedy has described as “the rematch of the century”.
“We will definitely see Obi-Wan and Darth Vader get into it again,” she told GamesRadar.
Ewan McGregor has also revealed Obi-Wan hasn’t quite recovered from the Jedi Cull in Revenge of the Sith.
“His arc will be quite interesting, I think, dealing with that, the fact that all the Jedi were slaughtered with the end of [Revenge of the Sith]. It’s quite something to get over,” he told Men’s Journal.
Many fans are hoping the series can fill in some of the blanks about Obi-Wan. Why does he call himself ‘Ben Kenobi’ in A New Hope? How is he so familiar with Mos Eisley? And did he have adventures outside Tatooine during his wilderness years?
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Where is the Obi-Wan Kenobi series filmed?
!["Star]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2019/08/Episode_III_Revenge_Ewan_McGregor16-028d3f0.jpg?quality=90&crop=161px%2C45px%2C1750px%2C1166px&resize=620%2C413" "\"Star")
The Obi-Wan Kenobi series will utilise the same remarkable video wall technology pioneered by Industrial Light & Magic, which has also been used to bring the world of The Mandalorian to life.
“They employ that incredible screen, and I don’t even begin to know how it works, but it’s pretty amazing, y’know,” McGregor told ACE Universe. “And so when you’re on set, if you’re in a snowscape or something, well, when you look around, you see that. And it makes you feel like you’re in the place.
He added: “I think it’s going to be more, it’s going to feel realer for us, for the actors. And I think we’ll be using some of that technology on our show.”
Co-star Kumail Nanjiani also praised the revolutionary new method of blockbuster filmmaking, agreeing that it helps aid the cast performances by transporting them to a galaxy far, far away.
“You really feel like you’re there,” he told Rolling Stone. “The first scene we shot, it was Star Wars outside the windows, with aliens walking around and ships flying by and all this stuff, but the rest of it just looked like a warehouse.
“So I did a couple of takes and then Ewan was like, ‘You know, none of this is real.’ I knew the windows weren’t real, but the walls weren’t either! I looked and I was like, ‘Wow, the walls are projected.’ The only thing that was real in the whole room was the desk I was sitting at. It was wild.”
Obi-Wan Kenobi director
LucasFilm confirmed that Deborah Chow will direct the series.
Chow, who recently worked on fellow Star Wars Disney+ series The Mandalorian, has also directed episodes of Mr Robot, American Gods, Jessica Jones, Fear the Walking Dead, Better Call Saul and The Man in the High Castle.
“We really wanted to select a director who is able to explore both the quiet determination and rich mystique of Obi-Wan in a way that folds seamlessly into the Star Wars saga,” LucasFilm President Kathleen Kennedy said in a release.
“Based on her phenomenal work developing our characters in The Mandalorian, I’m absolutely confident Deborah is the right director to tell this story.”
Just announced. Deborah Chow has been tapped to direct the new Obi-Wan Kenobi series debuting exclusively on @DisneyPlus: https://t.co/lKOnPWvqXR pic.twitter.com/gIaPi3ohH9
— Star Wars (@starwars) September 27, 2019
The series was originally being written by Hossein Amini, the screenwriter behind films and TV shows like McMafia, Drive, The Alienist, 47 Ronin, Snow White and the Huntsman and Our Kind of Traitor, which coincidentally starred Ewan McGregor.
However, Amini left the project in January 2020. He is reportedly being replaced by Joby Harold, who served as executive producer for John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum and is writing Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead.
According to Variety, Harold was also selected to develop a new take on the Transformers franchise over at Paramount.
Chow and McGregor will serve as executive producers alongside Kathleen Kennedy, Tracey Seaward (The Queen) and John Swartz (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story).
What happened to the Obi-Wan Kenobi film?
McGregor has confirmed that early plans for Obi-Wan’s return had him on the big screen, but eventually the idea shifted to Disney+ instead – and director Deborah Chow believes that’s a good thing.
“The situation is so complex both for [Obi-Wan] personally and in a way, the state of the galaxy, you sort of need time to explore it,” Chow recently told the New York Times.“And to be honest there are loads of other stories within that period as well, it’s quite a few years.
“There is so much going on between [Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope] that hasn’t been explored. The idea of being able to go into a character journey plus the politics and plus all the vastness of the Empire and what’s going on is exciting just because it feels like a proper period of history and sometimes that is hard to do in two hours.”
The Obi-Wan Kenobi series will air on Disney Plus. You can sign up to Disney Plus now for £79.90 for a year or £7.99 a month. If you’re looking for more to watch, check out our TV Guide.