Here’s when ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ takes place in the ‘Star Wars’ timeline — and what you need to know before you watch.
TV & Movies
The new Disney+ series follows the events of Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. Star Wars fans rejoice: Obi-Wan Kenobi is almost here, and it’s bringing back some of the franchise’s most iconic characters (and the actors who played them). The six-episode limited series, set to premiere on May 27 on Disney+, sees Ewan McGregor reprise his role as the eponymous Jedi Master. He first portrayed Obi-Wan in the franchise’s prequel trilogy, beginning with The Phantom Menace in 1999, and — although he would appear in cameos in The Force Awakens (2015) and The Rise of Skywalker (2019) — this series marks his first real return to the Star Wars universe. It also offers him the challenge of playing his character at an older age, nearer to the Obi-Wan seen in the original Star Wars film (retroactively titled Episode IV: A New Hope), played by the late actor Alec Guinness.
“I’m very excited to do it again – I’m probably more excited about it this time round… I’m older, slightly wiser, maybe,” McGregor told Radio Times in 2020. “The great fun part of it the first time was to try and be Alec Guinness, but younger. That was the acting challenge, as well as learning all the tricky fights… Now I’m much closer in age to him – I guess he was in his 60s when he made the first Star Wars film, and I’m about to be in my 50s.
