Obi-Wan Kenobi Season 2 Looks More Unlikely Than Ever — Here’s Why
The Force appears to be no longer with Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Though series lead Ewan McGregor has in interviews done his best to keep the Jedi master’s lightsaber a-glow, the fact that the upcoming 4K UHD and Blu-ray sets are labeled “Obi-Wan Kenobi: The Complete Series” appears to have struck down any hope for future adventures.
“I would love to do the second season, but there’s no talk of it yet,” McGregor said as recently as late January, noting: “There is a lot going on at Disney.”
Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy meanwhile has been decidedly bearish all along.
Obi-Wan Kenobi Season 2 “is not in active development,” Kennedy said last April at Star Wars Celebration, 10 months after Obi-Wan‘s finale dropped on Disney+. “But I never say never, because there’s always the possibility. That show was so well-received and [director] Deborah Chow did such a spectacular job. Ewan McGregor really wants to do another…. We’ll turn our attention to that again maybe down the road.”
Weeks later, in a May 2023 episode of EW’s Dagobah Dispatch podcast, Kennedy said, “I always hesitate to say no to more Obi-Wan Kenobi… But right now, it’s still our standard standalone limited series.”
In fact, Obi-Wan Kenobi competed at the 2023 Emmys (and other awards shows) as a Limited Series. Though it must be noted, HBO’s Big Little Lies did same, before being renewed for Season 2 at a later date.
Set 10 years after the events of 2005’s Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, Obi-Wan Kenobi Season 1 found our titular hero hiding out from the force-sensitive agents, known as Inquisitors, who were tasked with dispatching all surviving Jedi.
Following young Princess Leia’s (Vivien Lyra Blair) kidnapping — a ploy by Inquisitor Reva (The Queen’s Gambit’s Moses Ingram) to draw him out — Obi-Wan left his hideout on Tatooine for a rescue mission that took him far across the galaxy. The series reunited McGregor with Hayden Christensen, who reprised his role as Vader.
The Season 1 cast also included Indira Varma (Game of Thrones) as Tala, an officer of the Empire and secret spy for Jedi rebels; Rupert Friend (Homeland) as the Grand Inquisitor; Kumail Nanjiani (Silicon Valley) as Haja Estree, a Daiyu con artist; Sung Kang (Power) as the Inquisitor Fifth Brother; Maya Erskine (PEN15) as a rebel pilot; O’Shea Jackson Jr. as Roken, Tala’s associate based on Jabiim; Simone Kessell (The Crossing) and Uncut Gems director Benny Safdie.
Additionally, Joel Edgerton and Bonnie Piesse reprised their prequel trilogy roles as Luke Skywalker’s Uncle Owen Lars and Aunt Beru.
“That show was so well-received”… was it?
Not their best-reviewed show, but I’m pretty sure it was the most-watched, which is sort of the most important part.
To be fair, it felt self-contained and delivered all the expected major beats.
And nothing was lost.
The Obi-Wan and Boba Fett series were a significant downturn after Andor and the earlier seasons of The Mandalorian revitalized the Star Wars universe.
And therein lies a huge problem for Disney wrt Star Wars. These long event shows don’t make much money. Mando did, via merch, but the show itself didn’t make that much. And the shows are killing the movie making part.
I have a Blu-Ray set called “Star Wars – The Complete Saga” and it contains 6 movies, which proves that nothing is ever written in stone.
I really did like the Obi-Wan series and would totally welcome another run.
It’s fun to watch Ewan play the role, but from a story perspective, there isn’t a real need to do more. It resolved nicely.
Mandalorian and Ahsoka, by contrast, both set up epic events that will definitely feel unfinished without continuation. And Andor has a clear 2-season plan.
S1 only solidified Obi-Wan as the true villain of the OT.
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Had Vader dead to rights twice.
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Choked. Twice.
You know what I would like? A series about Owen and Beru Lars. Joel Edgerton and Bonnie Piesse were so good in Obi-Wan, and life on Tatooine could be such fertile ground for a story. (No pun intended. Okay, maybe a little pun intended.) You can flesh out their characters, show how much they really cared for Luke, and give their deaths in Star Wars more weight.
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Not everything needs to be about the fate of the galaxy.