Disney’s ‘Obi-Wan’ Is Set To Resolve A Lingering ‘Star Wars’ Plot Hole

Obi-Wan, the hotly anticipated Star Wars spin-off series due to appear on Disney+ on May 27, is going to have to grapple with an old, stubborn plot hole.

It must be exceedingly difficult to maintain internal logic in a vast universe like Star Wars, featuring so many moving parts, as the slightest change to canon is likely to cause an asteroid-sized collision.

The first film, A New Hope, establishes that Luke Skywalker’s journey began on Tatooine, where he meets “Ben” Kenobi, a harmless hermit dressed in ragged robes, who turns out to be a Jedi knight, ready to teach him the ways of the Force. It’s a simple, almost fairytale-like premise that was made absurd by the excessive worldbuilding that would come later.

George Lucas’s desire to echo the original trilogy resulted in the prequels establishing Tatooine as Darth Vader’s home planet, and Kenobi’s dusty robes as official Jedi uniform. This opened a hilarious plot hole that fans twist themselves in knots to explain, or simply poke fun at – why did Obi-Wan hide baby Luke on Darth Vader’s home planet, and why didn’t he bother changing their last names? Why would he wear clothes that mark him as a Jedi?

Ben Kenobi and baby Skywalker, just hanging out on Tatooine, while Vader fruitless roams the galaxy, searching everywhere but the most obvious place, has become an in-joke amongst Star Wars fans. Some jokingly invoke Anakin Skywalker’s legendary hatred of sand as the reason Obi-Wan chose to hide on Tatooine.

The official explanation states that Luke was sent to Tatooine because he had a childless aunt and uncle there, who could incorporate him into the family with no questions asked (amusingly, the two don’t share the same last name as Luke).

It’s also speculated that Darth Vader wouldn’t want to visit Tatooine again, for fear of sparking painful memories of his mother’s death, or perhaps, even reawakening the tiny sliver of humanity that still resides within him. Lastly, it is believed that Tatooine is such a backwater planet, floating in the middle of nowhere, that Vader’s forces wouldn’t even bother to look there.

But Disney’s determination to invoke franchise nostalgia, and thus, center Tatooine as the most important place in the galaxy, has completely killed the concept of Tatooine as a metaphorical small town, where nothing ever happens; almost every single Star Wars spin-off has found reason to visit the place. Even Boba Fett’s greatest ambition was to rule the “backwater” planet.

Hence, the Obi-Wan series is in the unenviable position of explaining why its titular hero is such a sloppy outlaw, and why Vader never figured out his poorly concealed secret.

The series will feature Moses Ingram as Reva, a former Jedi, now of the Empire’s Inquisitors, who seems determined to track down Obi-Wan, and seems to share a personal history with him. My guess is that Reva will likely uncover the secret, and then keep it to herself, after being persuaded to do the right thing by Obi-Wan. After all, Vader being lied to by his own agents might be the only plausible explanation for the plot hole.

Of course, it doesn’t really matter if the plot hole is resolved, or not; with each new installment, Star Wars seems to contradict itself.

If Obi-Wan proves as entertaining as The Mandalorian, viewers are unlikely to question the warped logic of Mr. Ben Kenobi.