‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ Writer Says the Show Was ‘Never’ Going to Be About Obi-Wan and Luke Skywalker
When Obi-Wan Kenobi premiered on Disney+ on May 27, some Star Wars fans were shocked to discover the series revolves around Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and Leia Organa (Vivien Lyra Blair) instead of Obi-Wan and Luke Skywalker (Grant Feely). In an interview with The Wrap, Obi-Wan Kenobi writer Joby Harold revealed the Disney+ series was “never” going to focus on Obi-Wan and Luke.
[Spoiler Alert: This article contains spoilers for the first season of Obi-Wan Kenobi.]
‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ is not about Obi-Wan’s relationship with Luke Skywalker
The first teaser trailer for Obi-Wan Kenobi premiered on March 9. In the teaser trailer, a young Luke is seen on Tatooine with Obi-Wan watching from afar.
On May 4, the official trailer for Obi-Wan Kenobi dropped. The longer trailer showed Obi-Wan once again watching over Luke. Fans also see Obi-Wan speak with Luke’s uncle, Owen Lars (Joel Edgerton), about wanting to train Luke.
Blair’s involvement as Leia in Obi-Wan Kenobi was kept a secret until the show premiered. In an interview with The Wrap, Harold revealed that the series “never” planned to focus on Obi-Wan interacting with Luke.
The Wrap writes, “When asked about rumors that originally it was Luke with whom Obi-Wan was paired in the series, Harold confessed that was ‘never in a version’ he had heard of.”
Why ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ decided to focus on Leia Organa
In the 1977 film Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, Leia sends a message to Obi-Wan asking for his help, which kickstarts the plot of the movie.
Speaking with The Wrap, Harold shared that the Disney+ series wanted to explore the “relationship” between Obi-Wan and Leia to set up what fans see in Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope.
“A New Hope is built on that relationship at the beginning, in a way that had never truly sort of been understood. The idea that we could complete something that the audience maybe hadn’t even realized needed to be completed in order for the most famous message of all time to really take hold felt like a really interesting opportunity,” Harold said.
The Obi-Wan Kenobi writer also shared that Leia’s inclusion in the show connects to the franchise’s recent sequel trilogy.
“As did the fact that, you know, Leia named her so Ben. There’s pieces of the puzzle in there that kind of makes it inevitable, if we’re contributing the sort of ‘Episode III and a Half’ to bigger canon, that hopefully makes it seem now in retrospect like, ‘Oh, yeah, and of course, that’s what this should be about,'” the writer told The Wrap.
‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ was ‘marketed’ as a different type of show
In his interview with The Wrap, Harold admitted that Obi-Wan Kenobi was “marketed” through trailers as Obi-Wan being in hiding versus rescuing Leia.
“Credit to the way the show had been marketed and teased, which was something that I tried to build in, that it could exist as seemingly this kind of ‘Man on the Run being hunted’ situation,” said Harold.
He continued, “The Leia of it all and sort of hiding the football there, which is quite delightful, was the great anxiety I had the night before the premiere, because there was no way of knowing if the audience would wrap their arms around that idea.”
The first four episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi are available to watch on Disney+.
