Obi-Wan Kenobi (TV Series)

About

Obi-Wan Kenobi TV Series refers to an unofficially titled Disney+ series following the story of the Star Wars character Obi-Wan Kenobi, with the prequel trilogy actor Ewan McGregor reprising his role as the iconic Jedi. The series are set to premiere on May 25th, 2022.

History

Initial Announcement and Confirmation of Ewan McGregor

On August 15th, 2019, Cinelinx reported that Disney and actor Ewan McGregor were in talks about the actor's potential reprisal of his role as the Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi for an unnamed TV series for its Disney+ digital subscription service.^[1] In the following hours, multiple television and cinema news outlets confirmed the report.^[2][3][4]

On August 23rd during D23 2019, speakers at the convention officially confirmed and revealed the Kenobi television series and confirmed that it would be coming to Disney+ in the next few years. During the on-stage presentation, Ewan McGregor made an appearance and confirmed that he would reprise his role as Kenobi for the show (seen below).

Disney Investor Day 2020 and Hayden Christensen Announcement

On December 10th during Disney's Investor Day 2020 convention, additional details were announced for the series alongside a slew of other shows set to take place in the Star Wars universe for Disney+, including that it would take place 10 years after the events of Star Wars Episode III Revenge of the Sith.^[7] Although no footage was shown, a brief title teaser with the caption "Star Wars Obi-Wan Kenobi" was unveiled (seen below), as well as Deborah Chow being confirmed as director.

During the virtual conference, Disney also confirmed that Hayden Christensen would return to reprise his role as Darth Vader and Anakin Skywalker for the Kenobi series, sparking a wave of memes referencing the announcement from fans, particularly within prequel memes fans.^[9] That same day, the official Star Wars Twitter^[8] account also posted the announcement alongside the teaser, receiving over 6.8 million views, 141,700 retweets and 7,500 replies in five days (shown below).

Cast Announcement

On March 29th, 2021, Disney+ announced twelve actors from the cast of the show,^[12][13] writing that the production of the series would "begin soon."

Premiered Date Announcement

On February 9th, 2022, Disney+ announced that the series will start streaming on May 25th, 2022.^[14]

Darth Vader Trailer

On May 4th, 2022, as part of the annual Star Wars day, another trailer for the upcoming Kenobi was released, with direct tension being shown between Obi-Wan and Uncle Owen, as well as outright showing Hayden Christensen's Darth Vader later in the trailer. Fans immediately began to speculate on how Vader and Obi-Wan would work on camera with the pre-established lore being what it is. The trailer^[15] for Kenobi was uploaded to the official Star Wars youtube channel, where it received over 2 million views in under two hours (shown below).

Fandom

Following the reports of the talks between Disney and McGregor, multiple memes referencing the announcement have been posted by Star Wars fans, primarily in /r/prequelmemes subreddit. For example, an August 15th, 2019, post by Redditor Bleedhammer garnered over 56,400 upvotes in 22 hours (shown below, left).^[5] A post by Redditor Naga278 gained over 18,000 upvotes in 17 hours (shown below, right).^[6]

Shortly after the announcement that Hayden Christensen would reprise his role as Darth Vader in the series, numerous memes referring to the news spread online. One such meme was posted by Redditor IDoKnowe on December 11th, 2020, to the /r/PrequelMemes^[10] sub with a quote from McGregor about working with Christensen again. The meme (seen below, left) received over 23,800 upvotes, 116 comments and several Reddit Awards in four days. Another meme was posted to /r/PrequelMemes^[11] by Redditor debsthepoet on December 12th, receiving over 11,700 upvotes, 43 comments and numerous awards in three days (seen below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References