General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022 TV series)

Obi-Wan Kenobi is an American limited television series in the Star Wars franchise, produced by Lucasfilm for Disney+ and released on May 27, 2022. Set during the reign of the Empire, ten years after Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005) and nine years before Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977), it follows the Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, played by Ewan McGregor, as he emerges from hiding on Tatooine for a crucial mission¹^•². The six-episode season stars Hayden Christensen as Darth Vader and introduces the Inquisitorius, Vader's Jedi-hunting agents, into live action³.

Key fact	Detail
Format	Disney+ original limited series, six episodes, rated TV-14¹
Release	May 27, 2022, with the first two episodes; the remaining four premiered weekly on Wednesdays in June³
Timeline placement	Ten years after Revenge of the Sith, nine years before A New Hope²
Director	Deborah Chow directed all six episodes and served as an executive producer⁴
Lead cast	Ewan McGregor (Obi-Wan Kenobi), Hayden Christensen (Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker), Moses Ingram (Reva), Vivien Lyra Blair (Princess Leia)³^•⁵
Reception	Metacritic Metascore 73 (generally favorable) from 19 critic reviews; Rotten Tomatoes 82% Tomatometer and 61% Popcornmeter⁵^•⁶
Origin	Originally developed as a trilogy of films; the first film's story was adapted into the series after development was shelved⁷

Spoilers

Premise and story

The show is set a decade on from Revenge of the Sith, whose dramatic events left Obi-Wan Kenobi with his most crushing defeat: Anakin Skywalker, his closest friend and Jedi apprentice, had fallen to the dark side and become corrupted, turning into the Sith Lord Darth Vader⁸. In hiding to avoid capture by the Empire, Obi-Wan lives a humble and solitary life on Tatooine, honoring his duty to watch over the young Luke Skywalker from afar⁴.

The plot is set in motion when Darth Vader enlists a league of Inquisitors, including the eager Reva (the Third Sister, played by Moses Ingram), to hunt down surviving Jedi⁴. When the young Princess Leia is taken from her home on Alderaan, her adoptive father Bail Organa (Jimmy Smits) calls on Obi-Wan to bring her back, drawing the Jedi back into a fight he had abandoned⁴. The season builds to a reunion and confrontation between Kenobi and Vader, fulfilling the series' promise to reunite the former master and apprentice³.

The six episodes, titled Part I through Part VI, trace a single arc: Obi-Wan emerges after years of hiding when Imperial agents pose a new threat, becomes a target on a crime-ridden world, searches for allies, plots a mission into enemy territory, and plans his next move as the Empire closes in, before the action-packed finale¹.

Production

Development. Lucasfilm had long been developing a trilogy of films featuring Obi-Wan Kenobi, but after the box office failure of Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), Disney put the project on hold; the story intended for the first film was adapted into the Disney+ series⁷. The series was created by Joby Harold, who also served as an executive producer alongside Kathleen Kennedy, Michelle Rejwan, Deborah Chow, and Ewan McGregor⁹.

Direction and structure. Deborah Chow, who had previously directed chapters of The Mandalorian, served as the sole director for all six episodes⁴. She described the result as a unified story resembling a film separated into parts, rather than mixed perspectives broken into episodes⁴. An academic estimate placed the series' overall budget at approximately $90 million¹⁰.

Cast. Alongside McGregor, Christensen, and Ingram, the cast includes Joel Edgerton as Owen Lars, Bonnie Piesse as Beru Lars, Kumail Nanjiani, Indira Varma, Rupert Friend as the Grand Inquisitor, O'Shea Jackson Jr., Sung Kang, Simone Kessell, and Benny Safdie³. Vivien Lyra Blair plays the young Princess Leia⁵.

Place in the Star Wars saga

The series fills the gap between the prequel and original trilogies, a period in which Obi-Wan kept watch over Luke Skywalker on Tatooine¹¹. Commentators noted that it adds depth to events and relationships depicted in the films, including Leia's connection to Ben Kenobi and the history behind the pair's meeting in A New Hope¹². Each part was also observed to echo its corresponding cinematic episode of the Skywalker saga thematically¹³.

The series introduced Vader's Inquisitorius into live action for the first time³. Lucasfilm lists it among the live-action series that followed The Mandalorian, alongside The Book of Boba Fett, Andor, Willow, and Ahsoka¹⁴.

Reception

Critical response was generally favorable. On Metacritic, the season holds a Metascore of 73 based on 19 critic reviews, 79% of them positive, while its user score stood at 6.4 from 2,828 ratings⁵. Rotten Tomatoes recorded an average Tomatometer of 82% from 362 reviews against a Popcornmeter audience average of 61% from more than 10,000 ratings⁶.

Reviewers singled out McGregor's performance. The Hollywood Reporter wrote that the series works because its protagonist does, calling McGregor as good as or better than he was in the prequel trilogy¹⁵. The Independent praised the self-contained story as giving the series more purpose than other Star Wars shows¹⁶. Criticisms centered on the show's reliance on familiar elements: the Roger Ebert site's review found the premiere struggled to develop a personality outside the two trilogies it connects, noting the similarity of its protector-and-child dynamic to The Mandalorian¹⁷, and Time later grouped it with The Book of Boba Fett among spinoffs that left some fans frustrated with how Lucasfilm handled familiar characters¹⁸. Space.com's retrospective grading of the Disney era gave the series a B, calling it a decent follow-up to Revenge of the Sith at best while criticizing some production values¹⁹.

Legacy and future

McGregor has pointed to the remaining decade between the end of the series and Alec Guinness's portrayal in A New Hope as an "unfinished" part of the character's story that could bridge the gap in future media²⁰. Rumors of a second season have circulated, but no second season has been confirmed²¹. The series was conceived as a limited series, and Marvel later announced it would bring the Disney+ series to comics¹.

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026