Obi-Wan Kenobi Has a Release Date

Television

After rumors and leaks, we finally have an official start date for the upcoming Disney+ Obi-Wan Kenobi series. The series stars Ewan McGregor, reprising his role from the Star Wars prequels, and will premiere on May 25th of this year. Although May 4th is often touted as Star Wars Day (and has seen its own dedicated releases), the 25th was the original release date of A New Hope, making it a crucial date in the franchise’s history. In addition to McGregor, Hayden Christensen will appear in the role of Darth Vader for the first time since Revenge of the Sith. He also briefly voiced the character in The Rise of Skywalker, but I think we can forgive him for that. Indira Varma (Game of Thrones), O’Shea Jackson Jr. (Straight Outta Compton), and Rupert Friend (The Young Victoria) will also be appearing, among others. 

This release date doesn’t come as much of a surprise. I am a little frustrated that this probably means The Bad Batch will be pushed back from the May release slot, much like The Book of Boba Fett snagged The Mandalorian’s release time. I don’t feel good about Lucasfilm shuffling their releases like this to accommodate newer titles, but I guess it is what it is. I wonder if The Mandalorian and Bad Batch needed more time in the oven (get it?), and these other projects came along faster. Disney has done that before; Toy Story 4 was initially supposed to come out before Incredibles 2. I would argue that rescheduling those titles came at the detriment of the latter film. Regardless, it would have been cool to get The Bad Batch season 2 on such an important date for Star Wars and just over a year after season 1. I can imagine why they would want to or be able to produce Kenobi first, though. I’m eager to see this series, and I hope Kathleen Kennedy hasn’t botched this one. It’s easy to imagine Kenobi having similar problems to Book of Boba Fett; both are about a beloved side character. Overall, I think they missed the mark on Boba Fett in a few ways, and I hope (cautiously) this isn’t more of the same. 

Are you going to watch Obi-Wan Kenobi? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!