Obi-Wan Kenobi’ Gets A Disney+ Trailer

Coming amid Bob Chapek’s controversial comments (or non-comments) about Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill and handwringing over Pixar’s Turning Red going straight to Disney+, this Obi-Wan Kenobi trailer has a certain “Malibu Stacy… with a new hat!” sensibility. Still, today is Disney’s investor shareholder meeting, so this was going to drop today anyway. I’m still surprised they didn’t offer up this teaser during last month’s Super Bowl, but c’est la vie.

And, yes, celebrating the 45th anniversary of the original Star Wars by debuting another example of how the current Star Wars brand is stuck in a cycle of original trilogy (or at least original character) nostalgia is deeply ironic and bittersweet. We get the Star Wars we deserve, even if I’ll admit that the final “let Robert Rodriguez be Robert Rodriguez” episode of The Book of Boba Fett was a terrific bit of “caffeinated kids playing with all their action figures” pay-off.

As for this show, it takes place between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, and there are many questions about to what extent the show, which will feature Hayden Christensen reprising his role as Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader, will retcon the simple “Obi-Wan and Vader meet up for the first time since everything went to hell” storytelling of the very first Star Wars movie. There’s allegedly a light saber rematch in store, but I guess it could be a dream sequence or something similarly “doesn’t quite count” in terms of keeping the timeline pure.

After all, a big part of these initial Star Wars shows is that they are being billed as essential chapters of the overall mythology, must-see TV if you will, and thus I can’t imagine the producers being allowed to potentially make any one installment less essential than the other. It looks like Ewan McGregor will get to do Star Wars outside (IE – not on Tatooine) for at least a scene or two, and the production values look appropriately strong.

There’s nothing explicitly wrong with this, and I am amused that prequel era nostalgia has run so high (granted, I like all three Star Wars prequels to varying degrees) that what absolutely dive-bombed in 2018 (new-in-their-day young actors playing established original trilogy characters in prequel stories) is now an iconic surefire hook. Anyway, Deborah Chow is directing with Moses Ingram, Joel Edgerton, Bonnie Piesse, Kumail Nanjiani, Indira Varma, Rupert Friend, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Sung Kang, Simone Kessell and Benny Safdie co-starring.

Obi-Wan Kenobi debuts on Disney+ on May 25. I don’t know whether it’s a good idea, but I do know that thanks to the streaming era, there’s no longer any such thing as a bad idea. Good/bad, watched/ignored, it’s all a content widget now.