‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ Producers Address ‘Star Wars’ Cameo Appearances

The Disney+ series “Obi-Wan Kenobi” is the next Star Wars series to air on Friday, May 27.

The show comes on the heels of “The Book of Boba Fett,” which featured cameo appearances from fan-favorite characters Luke Skywalker, R2-D2, and Ahsoka. The Mandalorian was also featured heavily in episode 5 and stayed on through the finale.

But what characters are going to make cameo appearances in “Obi-Wan Kenobi”? That’s what Entertainment Weekly attempted to find out.

The events of “Obi-Wan Kenobi” take place ten years after “Revenge of the Sith” and 18 years before the events that take place in “The Mandalorian.” Therefore, it’s more than possible that Ahsoka Tano, who was once Anakin Skywalker’s padawan, will make an appearance in the series.

“Ahsoka” has her own Disney+ cameo coming to Disney+ in 2023, and Hayden Christensen will be reprising his role as Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader for both “Obi-Wan Kenobi” and “Ahsoka.”

While speaking to Entertainment Weekly, director Deborah Chow said that fans will see several familiar faces in the upcoming series, most notably from the prequel trilogy.

“Given the nature of our characters, the strongest connective tissue is to the prequels for us,” Chow explained. “Because in large part, that's where our characters are coming from and that's where their stories started. So really the prequels are sort of the most connected to our series.”

Chow has previously directed several episodes of “The Mandalorian” and said that some elements of “Obi-Wan Kenobi” may feel familiar to fans in terms of style and tone.

“Obviously I came from The Mandalorian, so a lot of that DNA is in me,” Chow explained. “And a lot of my Jedi masters, with John Favreau and Dave Filoni, are also just sort of embedded in me now, but I wasn't looking to tie in necessarily anything. It was just trying to tell the story with integrity to the character, and so that was the connection to the prequels.”

Several cast members from the prequels have already been confirmed to return, such as Joel Edgerton as Uncle Owen and Bonnie Piesse as Aunt Beru. It’s possible that Jimmy Smits will also make an appearance as Bail Organa.

Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy seemed to hint that Ahsoka is continuing on her mission to track down Grand Admiral Thrawn from the “Rebels” animated series.

“Dave Filoni has explored that particular part of the timeline extensively in Rebels and what he did with Clone Wars,” Kennedy explained. “We've been mining a part of those stories inside of The Mandalorian, and there's nothing that Dave is more excited about than taking the character of Ahsoka with Rosario and exploring stories beyond anything he did in Rebels and Clone Wars. So that's something very specific to the development that he's doing and all of that falls within the kind of Mandalorian timeline.”

The Grand Inquisitor, who made an appearance in season 1 of “Rebels,” will be making his live-action debut in “Obi-Wan Kenobi.” He will be played by Rupert Friend and has been featured heavily in the trailers and promotional materials thus far.

Although things didn’t go so well for Boba Fett in “Return of the Jedi,” it’s possible that Boba Fett may make an appearance in “Obi-Wan Kenobi.” After all, Boba watched his “father,” Jango Fett, fight with Obi-Wan Kenobi on Kamino.

Writer Joby Harold seemed to cast doubt on Boba Fett actually appearing in this upcoming series, however.

“From the beginning, we've all thought of this as its own unique story,” he explained. “I had always thought of it as its own chapter in bigger canon between the prequels and the original trilogy. There was a story that hadn't been told, which to me was sort of episode 3-and-a-half.”

“And so within that vacuum, I've personally been thinking about it as its own close-ended story, whilst knowing that it's already connected to the past and connected to what's coming,” he continued. “But wherever possible, I've thought of it that way, as opposed to it existing within a larger tapestry of some of the other shows that are coming out. So it's its own story.”

However, he admitted that fans “can’t ignore the connectivity of all these stories, because they're all playing within the same worlds and characters that George created. So there's an undeniable connectivity between all of them. But that said, it's its own story. It's its own six-part movie. And to that end, I thought of it as this six-chapter story that's just its own tale.”

It remains to be seen which characters – if any – will make an appearance in the six-episode limited series. Fans will just have to wait and see when “Obi-Wan Kenobi” debuts on Disney+ on Friday, May 27.