SALT LAKE CITY — Deseret News previously reported Ewan McGregor will return as Obi-Wan Kenobi for a Disney Plus “Star Wars” show, but now we know where the series’ events will fall in the timeline.
According to Lucasfilm’s “Star Wars Show,” which is available on YouTube, the “Obi-Wan” series will be set eight years after “Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.” In that movie, Kenobi retreated to Tatooine with an infant Luke Skywalker shortly after leaving Anakin Skywalker, his friend and mentee, to burn alive on Mustafar.
Considering we already have a few movies, a television show and numerous books and comics that touch on Kenobi’s elder years, we know how the story ends. However, the series has the potential to explore the last place Kenobi appeared, which was in “Star Wars Rebels.”
According to Business Insider, a season three episode of the animated show explores Darth Maul (yes, that one) orchestrating a final showdown with Obi-Wan (by this point old Ben) Kenobi, who chopped the former Sith in half in “The Phantom Menace.”
So while we know the beginning and end of the rivalry, there’s still time to explore other altercations between the two warriors.
ComicBook.com also notes the series is set around the same time period as “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” which quietly revealed to anyone who wasn’t watching “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” that Maul was both alive and ruling over the Crimson Dawn crime organization. It’s possible the show could run with that plot thread, making Maul a looming presence over Kenobi’s stay on Tatooine.
While we don’t know everything Obi-Wan is up to following “Revenge of the Sith,” we do know a little bit about some of his former friends and their post-Republic lives:
- Polygon notes Marvel’s most recent “Darth Vader” comics have explored Anakin’s transformation into Darth Vader, which involves building a fortress on Mustafar and learning weird Sith magic tricks in an attempt to resurrect his wife, Padmé. Herb Scribner previously reported for Deseret News that the former queen didn’t appreciate the gesture.
- According to Gizmodo, “Star Wars Aftermath: Empire’s End,” Chuck Wendig’s 2017 novel, revealed Jar-Jar Binks became a street clown on Naboo following the fall of the Empire. The Gungan also reveals he had been permanently exiled for helping Emperor Palpatine form the Empire in the first place.
- ComicBook.com also reports Obi-Wan’s master, Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson), returns as a force ghost in the 2016 novel “Ahsoka” to teach his former pupil how to pull off the same trick.
- Speaking of Ahsoka —Anakin’s Clone Wars-era padawan — SyFy notes the previously-mentioned novel takes place a year after “Revenge of the Sith” and explores the Jedi’s adventures in the far reaches of the galaxy.
While Disney’s “Obi-Wan” series doesn’t have a release date, it’s expected to enter production next year.