The fourth was with Disney/Lucasfilm when they dropped a spectacular Obi-Wan Kenobi trailer.
I speculate what this trailer tells us about the highly anticipated limited series.
While anyone who knows me would say that every day of my life is basically a Star Wars holiday, May the Fourth is still a very special day. New collectibles and merchandise drop, people make fun Star Wars-themed snacks, and, of course, Disney and Lucasfilm often make exciting announcements about upcoming projects. This year, as I had hoped we might, we got the full, official trailer for the upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi series, which will stream exclusively on Disney+ starting Friday May 27. Fans were already excited for the “6-part event” after a solid teaser trailer, and I think this full trailer will only fan those flames.
The sign of a great trailer, to me, is that it can, through its editing, very clearly communicate what a show is going to be about. Of course, some trailers turn out to be misleading — I mean, Marvel has been known to literally erase certain characters from footage in trailers to withhold certain surprises — but I think a successful trailer has to accurately convey the premise of a series or film without giving away too much, and has to do so without finagling or misdirection. I’m very hopeful about this trailer because, at this point, it seems to both indicate the ground-level action plot — that Obi-Wan will spend the limited series fighting off a barrage of attacks from “every low-life and bounty hunter” as well as a team of menacing Inquisitors — as well as the psychological/thematic plot — that Obi-Wan must reckon with the tragic events of The Revenge of the Sith (2005) that continue to haunt him years later.
What puts the latter into sharp focus is the most impactful line of the entire trailer, uttered by Uncle Owen, played by Joel Edgerton, reprising his role from the prequel films. When Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan says, “When the time comes, he [Luke] must be trained,” Owen bitterly replies, “Like you trained his father?” This simple rhetorical question immediately evokes all the ways in which the Jedi Order and, to a lesser extent, Obi-Wan specifically, may have failed Anakin as he succumbed to fear, anger, hate, and, ultimately, the Dark Side. Ewan McGregor’s heartbreaking look of guilt, shame, and sadness as he averts his eyes instantly conveys the deep loss and regret he must carry with him in his exile.
His suggestion that Luke will need to be trained as a Jedi in some ways shows that he’s still holding on to the ideals of the Jedi Order, despite its downfall, and still believes in saving the Galaxy from the Empire. But, at the same time, it gives off this teacherly hubris that Luke’s talents as a Skywalker should not be wasted and that he, as a Jedi, would know what’s best for him. Owen’s justified resentment of that hubris creates such a rich conflict. Hopefully we see more of that tension play out in the series, with Obi-Wan perhaps growing and changing to find a new place for his noble ideals in this uncertain, post-Order 66 Galaxy. The Force Center podcast made an astute observation that Obi-Wan specifies that he would only train Luke when the time was right. This implies that he’s at least factoring in Luke’s wellbeing.
As a way to balance the intense character development this exchange between Owen and Obi-Wan portends, I’m personally excited to see Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan Kenobi in action, having to fight without his lightsaber. The trailer shows a scene that looks as though Obi-Wan is brawling with a Zabrak while in his pajamas, so perhaps some bounty hunters attack him in his sleep. Since he has to hide the fact that he’s a Jedi (because the Empire is steadily hunting down and eliminating them all), he will have to use blasters and hand-to-hand combat (or, more specifically, as the Internet has speculated, Teras Kasi, a form of martial arts originally created to fight the Jedi). As much as I love watching any version of Obi-Wan in a lightsaber fight, I’m very much looking forward to seeing Ewan McGregor in scrappy, non-lightsaber fights. This trailer does a great job of showing him on the run, fighting for his life.
The other person who seems to be on the run is Kumail Nanjiani’s character, who briefly appears crouching somewhere, afraid. Much speculation at Nanjiani’s casting announcement thought that he, due to his comedic chops, would play a sassy droid, following a fine tradition established by Alan Tudyk’s K2SO in Rogue One (2016) and Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s L3-37 in Solo (2018). I was pleasantly surprised to see him in human form here. While citic Joanna Robinson of The Ringer-verse podcast speculates that he’ll be a wise-cracking smuggler-type, I’m with those who think he’s actually a Jedi trying to avoid execution like Obi-Wan. So much of this story seems to hinge on the fallout of Order 66 and the Empire rising to power, and how much danger the surviving Jedi are in because of that. So having a minor Jedi character played by a recognizable actor to flesh out this larger story, similar to how a young Kanan Jarrus (born Caleb Dune) did in the comics and in The Bad Batch animated series, makes sense.
While it is hard to tell if Nanjiani is actually wearing Jedi robes in the trailer, the hood and the color scheme immediately made me think of them. And the editing of the trailer also makes me think that he is the one Obi-Wan is talking to in the voice-over when he says, “They’re coming. Stay hidden. Or we will not survive.” I think that placing another fugitive Jedi — one who is maybe more frazzled and has less wherewithal — in Kenobi’s path would be a clever way to make him vulnerable and easier to find. I also went back to take a closer look at the teaser trailer and noticed that there is one shot of Reva drawing her lightsaber and forcing someone to pop up from under a table. I’m not saying it looks like the back of Kumail Nanjiani (especially the more I look at it), but, in retrospect, I think it could be. Dark slightly shaggy hair is just enough for me to go on at this point.
Kenobi’s advice on how to survive and Inquisitor Reva’s voice-over in this official trailer pair nicely with the teaser trailer because together they reveal what Reva and the Grand Inquisitor’s strategy will be during the series. I recall that the main voice-over in the teaser trailer from The Grand Inquisitor mocks the Jedi way as “an itch” that Obi-Wan will not be able to stop himself from scratching. In this full trailer, Reva says, “I want every low-life and bounty hunter to squeeze him.” This, to me, implies that they will try to smoke out Obi-Wan Kenobi, drawing him out from hiding not only by trying to wear him down with constant attacks, but by threatening other innocents as well. If Kumail Nanjiani’s fugitive Jedi character needs help, Obi-Wan is definitely going to put himself in harm’s way to save him from Reva.
While Reva looked very cool in the teaser trailer, I felt like we didn’t find out much about her. Here I’m very pleased to hear her voice and get some insight into her character’s motivations. It sounds as though most of the Inquisitors have given up on finding Obi-Wan, thinking “he’s gone,” but she can’t let him go, saying that maybe they aren’t “looking in the right places.” Her determination combined with the way she bellows, “You can’t run, Obi-Wan!” makes her absolutely terrifying and completely believable as a match/threat for Kenobi. I don’t think she has to have a backstory that explains why she wants to catch Obi-Wan so badly; I would be satisfied with her own personal ambition and wanting to impress her boss, Vader. But I’d also love it if we got to know her character more.
Reva also says, “You can’t escape him.” The trailer then immediately cuts to a shot of Vader’s mid-section panel lighting up, so I think that she has to be referring to him there. While I’m not as (hilariously) anti-Vader in this show as Van Lathan of The Ringer-verse podcast, I do hope that the appearance of Vader will have narrative potency and not just be flashy, superficial fan service that will overshadow whatever story Director Deborah Chow is trying to tell here. What would make the most sense is if the specter of Vader hangs over Obi-Wan for most of the series, through flashbacks with Hayden Christiansen as Anakin and metonymic hints of Vader in the suit, with an actual appearance by Vader in the final episode. It would make the most sense to build up anticipation for an epic lightsaber fight, where Obi-Wan finally uses his lightsaber. If the show can exercise restraint in this way, I think the payoff could be tremendous.
[BRIEF SPOILER FOR STAR WARS REBELS AHEAD!] I think a good precedent for this is Ahsoka Tano’s (Anakin’s former padawan’s) encounter with Vader in the animated series, Star Wars Rebels. Their reunion and Ashoka’s realization of what happened to her former master is dynamic, thrilling, and emotionally crushing.
[OKAY, IT’S SAFE AGAIN.]
I’d recommend watching the first two seasons of Rebels in preparation for Obi-Wan Kenobi, if you have time. Season 1 at least will give you a better sense as to who the Inquisitors are as a group, which may help you appreciate them more in the new live-action series.
What do I make of the appearance of Vader in this trailer, then? The intercutting of pieces of the Vader suit slowly clicking into place reminded me a lot of Revenge of the Sith, but here it’s mixed in with Obi-Wan looking as though he has sensed Vader through the Force. I think it’s unlikely that this would be happening in the main timeline of the show, which takes place 10 years after The Revenge of the Sith. Anakin would have long been Vader in that suit at that point. Instead this sequence in the trailer could actually be a flashback to Obi-Wan’s early days on Tatooine, when he first realized that Anakin was still alive and had become Vader.
[SPOILER FOR STAR WARS REBELS AHEAD!] That said, Ahsoka Tano doesn’t realize that Vader is Anakin until the animated series, Rebels, which is much closer to Episode 1: A New Hope (1977) in the timeline, I think. If you have thoughts about this, please drop them in the comments!
[OKAY IT’S SAFE AGAIN.]
Either way, the chilling look Obi-Wan has in this trailer gives me hope that this series could be a major acting showcase for Ewan McGregor. Considering the prolific and impressive career he has had since the prequel films, I would want nothing more for McGregor than a triumphant return to this iconic character.
The format of Obi-Wan Kenobi may contribute to a potentially award-worthy performance. With the trailer highlighting this as a limited series and 6-part event, this feels different than the ongoing series in the “Mando-Verse,” with The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett. It feels singular and epic. I’ve heard folks say it feels more cinematic, but I don’t want to imply that serialized storytelling is inferior to that of feature films. I think both can be “cinematic” in scope and quality, if done well.
We should get a fair taste of whatever this “event” will look and feel like on May 27 because not one but two episodes will hit Disney+ at midnight PT. May 27 also falls during the heart of the world’s biggest Star Wars convention, Star Wars Celebration, which happens to be in my neck of the woods, Anaheim, this year. I’ll be there all four days and will report back any major announcements, as well as a review of the first installments of Obi-Wan Kenobi!