Do we really need an ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ season 2?
Here we go again with the Obi-Wan Kenobi season 2 rumors—and this time, they’re coming straight from the source. Now that Ewan McGregor has teased his potential return to the galaxy far, far away, I can’t help but wonder: is Star Wars kicking the proverbial dead horse?
LA Comic-Con might not have the scale or visibility of its San Diego counterpart, but this year’s event drew attention for one particular reason: Jedi master Obi-Wan Kenobi. Ewan McGregor, who first stepped into the role for George Lucas’ Star Wars prequel trilogy back in 1999, took to the stage where he revealed that—amid conflicting reports—Lucasfilm is currently “exploring” ideas for a second season of his Disney+ spinoff show.
Obi-Wan Kenobi was supposed to be a miniseries
SparkNotes recap: Obi-Wan Kenobi was conceived as a film trilogy before being reimagined as a miniseries. Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy officially announced the project at 2019’s D23 Expo. Deborah Chow was then hired as showrunner, and after months of COVID delays, the series rolled out on Disney+ in May 2022 to the general consensus of meh?
Although many fans (myself included) were overjoyed to see McGregor and Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader actor Hayden Christensen reprise their roles 17 years after the release of Star Wars – Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Obi-Wan Kenobi fell flat despite having all the right ingredients to succeed—well, except for a big budget. More importantly, it seemed like Lucasfilm only ever wanted it to be a miniseries, even though the cast and crew have since expressed interest in returning for more.
Okay, back to the present. In case you’re unaware, things aren’t going super great for Star Wars at the moment, with the release of The Acolyte having unleashed all-out warfare online. Fandom infighting aside, Lucasfilm doesn’t appear to have many plans for the future, with the only glimmers of hope being Andor season 2, Skeleton Crew, Ahsoka season 2, and a handful of Mandalorian-centric spinoff movies, which we probably won’t see until 2026 at the earliest.
So if Disney really does go through with renewing Obi-Wan Kenobi, I fear we’re going to get sucked back into the Skywalker saga—and that’s not necessarily a good thing.
Ewan McGregor pitches Obi-Wan Kenobi season 2
During a Q&A panel at LACC, McGregor revealed that Disney and Lucasfilm are actively “exploring” ideas for an Obi-Wan Kenobi season 2. Furthermore, his vision for future episodes supposedly involves donning his Clone Wars armor as well as re-teaming with Christensen, which sent fans of Star Wars animation into a tizzy. This isn’t a confirmation, however, so take his remarks with a grain of salt.
The reinvigorated talk of a Showbi-Wan Kenobi season 2 has put me in a dilemma. On the one hand, I adore Obi-Wan (scorching hot take, I know). Who doesn’t? He has one of the best character arcs in all of Star Wars, and is, in my eyes, the unquestionable highlight of the prequels and the Star Wars: The Clone Wars TV series. His stoicism and his certifiable bar brawler tendencies make him uniquely three-dimensional—a rarity in the Star Wars universe.
On the other hand, I’m not exactly stoked by the idea of watching a digitally de-aged Christensen and McGregor swing their lightsabers again for live-action Clone Wars flashbacks. This concept was already explored in Ahsoka, and frankly, it reeks of desperation. What would this add to these already very fleshed-out characters? Do “member-berries” actually bring anything of substance, or is this all a bit of fan service to entice fans into renewing their Disney+ subscriptions? To me, it’s just too little, too late.
You can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but if Lucasfilm wants to regain the trust of disillusioned fans, I’m begging studio heads to do anything but fall back on legacy characters. Have we learned nothing from the mixed reception to Solo: A Star Wars Story or the even more divisive The Book of Boba Fett? I know that the poor response to The Acolyte suggests hardcore “fans” aren’t willing to try anything new, but I think it’s a grave miscalculation to make this assumption. Rogue One and that stellar first season of The Mandalorian managed to pull it off, though the latter eventually fell into the Skywalker saga trap.
Obi-Wan Kenobi season 1 left a lot of loose plot threads
Today, Obi-Wan Kenobi still occupies a weird place in the Star Wars community. But regardless of how controversial the final product was, the reception of the season 2 news seems to be mostly positive, as there are several roads creators can take. Based on previous interviews with Stuart Beattie, who was tapped to write the scrapped Obi-Wan Kenobi movie trilogy, we know that there were some promising ideas that ended up on the cutting room floor—namely, a bigger arc for Luke and the inclusion of my personal favorite niche Star Wars character, Commander Cody. We were robbed!
If Obi-Wan Kenobi season 2 ever comes to fruition, I’m more than willing to give it a chance. In fact, I’d be excited to see how future episodes may improve my outlook on season 1, maybe with a more grounded, introspective take on the titular Jedi master and his relationship with Luke, as well as his training with Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson), who finally stopped ignoring his former Padawan’s calls in the season finale.
Even so, I’d love to see Star Wars do something new—it’s a big galaxy, after all. We only got to see a snippet of the High Republic era in The Acolyte and there’s plenty of source material for future films or Disney+ shows to draw inspiration from. What about a story set post-sequel trilogy? A tale of Coruscant’s criminal underbelly à la Crimson Dawn, perhaps? Or are we doomed to watch CGI Mark Hamill forever, shackled by the chains of Star Wars past?
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