The Empire Strikes Back may have set the template for blockbuster sequels getting continually darker that a huge number of properties still adhere to, but Star Wars in general has never been viewed as a particularly grim or miserable franchise. There’s been plenty of darkness, but it hasn’t really been used as either a driving force or selling point behind the various movies and TV shows.
However, we’ve now heard from our sources – the same ones who told us Hayden Christensen would be returning for the series long before it was officially announced – that Obi-Wan Kenobi is going to be far from all sunshine and rainbows, with Ewan McGregor’s title hero set to be introduced as a very downbeat version of himself when the Disney Plus exclusive lands next year, and the overall tone reportedly fairly dark.
Of course, that’s to be expected given that his former Padawan turned to the Dark Side, allied with Palpatine and butchered an entire temple of Younglings, before becoming the most evil figure in the galaxy. And that’s without even mentioning the fact that Obi-Wan was forced into some drastic measures on Mustafar during Revenge of the Sith in one last ditch attempt to try and bring his protege back to the light.
That sort of personal conflict is inevitably going to lead to a bit of inner turmoil, especially when he then went into self-imposed exile in the aftermath. Obi-Wan Kenobi is set to pick up a decade after Episode III, but clearly the legendary Jedi won’t be anywhere close to outrunning or escaping from his past, and things are poised to come to a head once more after Lucasfilm promised fans the rematch of the century between the former student and master turned archenemies.