‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ Writer Teases ‘Jedi Are On The Run’ In New ‘Star Wars’ Series

Fans are excited for “Obi-Wan Kenobi” to finally make its debut on Disney+ on May 27.

Although the series was supposed to come out on May 25, 2022 – exactly 45 years to the day as “A New Hope” debuted in theaters on May 25, 1977 – the powers that be decided to push back the release date by two days to coincide with the annual fan event Star Wars Celebration, which is taking place in Anaheim, California, this year.

In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, series writer Joby Harold explained when in the “Star Wars” timeline that “Obi-Wan Kenobi” starts off.

According to Harold, the six-episode limited series “takes place ten years after ‘Revenge of the Sith’, in a time of darkness in the galaxy.”

He continued, “The Empire is in the ascendancy. And all the horrors that come with the Empire are being made manifest throughout the galaxy. And the Jedi Order as we know them are being all but wiped out. So everything that was in the prequels has crumbled.”

Harold explained that things are not looking good for the few surviving Jedi who managed to escape Order 66 in “Revenge of the Sith,” which closed out the “Star Wars” prequel trilogy.

"Those surviving Jedi, those that do survive, are on the run and they're in hiding,” Harold explained. “And Vader and his Inquisitors are chasing them to the end of the galaxy."

Harold added, “Within that hopeless fatalistic world, we find possibly the most famous of all our surviving Jedi in hiding struggling with that faith that defines the Jedi, and wanting to hold onto it and hoping to regain that faith within that sort of hopeless world.”

The titular character will once again be played by Emmy-award-winning actor Ewan McGregor. In the original “Star Wars” trilogy, the character was portrayed by the late Sir Alec Guinness.

“Within that environment and that galaxy, [Obi-Wan Kenobi’s] faith is tested,” Harold explained. “And he goes on a journey that allows him to travel from that character that we saw in the last of the prequels, where [McGregor] really felt like he was embodying Obi-Wan Kenobi to a pretty extraordinary degree, and ends with him as the more finished article that Sir Alec Guinness gave to the world in A New Hope.”

He continued, “And so in this very specific time in the history of Star Wars, when the Jedi are on run, we get to sort of stand next to and watch Obi-Wan as he runs the gauntlet and has to survive a pretty extraordinary experience.”

McGregor will once again face his apprentice Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen), although he has now transitioned into the Sith Lord Darth Vader.

Harold said that “Obi-Wan is defined by his past to a pretty great degree. I mean, Obi-Wan and Anakin share so much screen time together. They're so close that everything that he's experienced and everything that happened with Anakin cannot help but define him. And we meet a man who's very much defined by that history, whether he wants to be or not.”

Harold teased that for Obi-Wan Kenobi to move forward, he may have to confront his past.

“Part of the journey of what he goes through is reconciling that past and coming to understand it and coming to understand his place in it,” Harold explained. “And that journey and the places he has to go emotionally as well as physically, and some of those battles he has to fight, are very much to do with facing that past and understanding who he was, his part in his own history, in the history of others.”

Fans can look forward to watching Kenobi’s journey for themselves when the first two episodes of the six-episode series drop on Friday, May 27 on Disney+.