Whether you love George Lucas’ “Star Wars,” like a rabid Ewok, or hate him for the power of a thousand Death Stars, it’s hard to deny that Ewan McGregor played young Obi-Wan Kenobi in 1999. As were a smash.
on Disney+. New episodes come out every Friday.
Twenty-three years ago—long before origin stories became a vogue—the actor cleverly imagined how a pre-naturally intelligent whippersniper version of Alec Guinness might behave and trace the student’s transition to hermit . McGregor and Liam Neeson as Qui-Gon Jinn were 100%, far better additions to “Star Wars” than any soft cast in JJ Abrams’s recent faltering trilogy.
And so it’s a pleasure to welcome Scott back in “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” Disney+’s latest series set from a long time ago in a galaxy far away (some nine more are coming soon). The first two episodes of the sci-fi drama that dropped on Friday don’t suggest the intoxicating triumph that “The Mandalorian” had a first season in, but The Force mostly accompanies it.
The show takes place 10 years after the events of 2005’s “Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith”, in which Anakin Skywalker was transformed into a Darth Vader – OG Mask enthusiast.
Although the math is confusing, it actually makes sense. The McGregor actor is now 17 years old, true, but the story of the aughts movies took over 13 years and the hottie was sent prematurely into a mid-life crisis with a silly beard. Now at the age of 51, he is closer to the actual age of his character.
A decade later, Obi-Wan calls himself Ben, as he does in 1977’s “A New Hope.” He lives on the two-sunset desert planet of Tatooine, remotely tracking 10-year-old Luke and secretly attempting to survive as the last remaining Jedi are violently hunted by the Inquisitors (a strange Rupert led by a friend).
This is where “Obi-Wan” resembles “The Mandalorian,” “Star Trek” and “Stargate SG-1.” Obviously watching a burlap-hooded man in a cave all day would be no fun, so there are unplanned missions that take him away from the world, where we meet characters with big personalities. Kumail Nanjiani, with his signature dry humour, plays an underrated figure, we hope to see more.
He is followed all the time by a canine Imperial Inquisitor named Reva (Moses Ingram).
Initially, little Leia (Vivian Lyra Blair) plays a lead with her adoptive father, Bel Organa (Jimmy Smuts, back from the prequel) from her home planet of Alderaan. He’s already strong-willed and precocious, and the writing goes too far with a spicy attitude. We don’t need Princess Doogie Hauser.
What’s Missing From “Obi-Wan” Is The Same Jedi sais quoi Ever since Disney bought Lucasfilm, it’s been absent from much of the “Star Wars” franchise (outside “The Mandalorian”): the sense that you’re watching something fantastic and new. Production with elaborate CGI set pieces and creatures is expensive. However, there is little difference in filmmaking. Nothing innovative or cool. Aesthetically, the series is part of an ongoing effort to curate an iconic American blockbuster and make it look like another “Star Wars” product.
Appearance aside, the story is gripping so far and McGregor continues the story of Obi-Wan in a big emotional way—something that Alden Ehrenreich’s terrifying Han Solo film couldn’t.
The most important thing to note (it’s not so much a spoiler as sweetener) is that in the first two episodes of “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” Jar Jar Binks doesn’t appear. Everyone can relax. Allegedly he is harassing someone else far, far away.
