Star Wars Show - Tonight's Live Stream! DON'T MISS THIS ONE!

Star Wars Show - Tonight's Live Stream! DON'T MISS THIS ONE!

Disney’s upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi series will not only bring back Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen to their iconic roles but also unlock a new era of storytelling for these beloved Star Wars characters. From a certain point of view, the show will walk a similar path to The Book of Boba Fett, exploring the lost years of the Jedi Master before his fateful meeting with Luke Skywalker in A New Hope, just as Boba Fett used flashbacks to flesh out the bounty hunter’s untold story after Return of the Jedi.

But some might say Obi-Wan Kenobi is at a disadvantage compared to The Book of Boba Fett‘s relatively blank slate. Since the character’s overall story is already set in stone — we know where he’s going and where his journey must end — how high can the stakes really get in the new Disney+ series?

Of course, Rogue One faced a similar challenge in 2016. If we already know the Death Star plans will be successfully delivered to the Rebel base on Yavin IV, can Jyn Erso and Cassian Andor’s journey really surprise us? Well, it did when the film shockingly killed off its entire cast of colorful, all-new characters in the third act. But Obi-Wan Kenobi, which is set nine years before A New Hope, won’t be able to pull the same trick with its famous protagonist.

One of the reasons The Mandalorian has been so successful is because it features characters whose stories are unwritten during the largely unexplored post-Return of the Jedi era. Week after week, we can huddle up to theorize what might happen next to Din Djarin and Grogu, and the similarly set Ahsoka spin-off series will have this advantage, too.

It’s also why The Book of Boba Fett, another show set during the same era as The Mandalorian, feels like such a disappointment. Despite having the exact same open road on which to drive its story, the series floundered under the weight of its own star. In fact, it may have done more harm than good to the character’s legacy as the silent mystery man in cool armor — something even Temuera Morrison seemed to understand when he suggested to executive producer Jon Favreau that Boba talked way too much in his scenes. Inconsistent characterization — is he a nice dude or is he a crime lord — and the show’s obsession with explaining every single trivial detail about Boba’s return from the dead didn’t do the character any favors, either. That the two best episodes of The Book of Boba Fett didn’t even feature Boba Fett is just the cherry on top of this bland, melting sundae.

Fortunately, there’s new Star Wars coming in May to help us all move on. But will things really change for Obi-Wan Kenobi? After all, this is another show that will address an unanswered question that isn’t exactly necessary to our understanding of the long-established character: what was the Jedi Master up to while in exile on Tatooine? It’s easy to see how Obi-Wan Kenobi could end up falling into the same traps as The Book of Boba Fett, becoming so self-referential and obsessed with explaining the past that it leaves absolutely nothing to the imagination, turning the mystery of Obi-Wan’s lost years into the visual equivalent of a too-thorough Wookieepedia entry.

On the surface, there are some key differences that separate this miniseries from what’s come before, such as the creators telling this story. The Mandalorian veteran Deborah Chow returns, directing the entire six-episode series from scripts by Joby Harold (Army of the Dead). Bringing in fresh perspectives could mean a slightly different visual language and aesthetic, and perhaps writing that isn’t so preoccupied with the next cameo or easter egg — hallmarks of Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni’s writing style, which have worked well for The Mandalorian but terribly for Boba Fett. Of course, some of these things were likely decided in an executive boardroom, and not necessarily by the people behind the camera.

Obi-Wan Kenobi is also the first live-action Disney+ show set in the era between the Prequels and the Original Trilogy, which will inherently lend the series a bit of freshness. It won’t need to sneak in connections to The Mandalorian or The Book of Boba Fett — it won’t really be able to (unless young Din and Boba are now somehow on the menu). Setting the show 10 years after Revenge of the Sith should also mean that Obi-Wan Kenobi can naturally develop its own look and feel, an aesthetic that isn’t quite the chrome of the Republic years but not exactly the cold Imperial design of the Original Trilogy. The Rebels animated series, for example, excelled at marrying both eras to create something that looked unique but also unquestionably Star Wars. There’s a real opportunity to do that again in Obi-Wan Kenobi.