After Revenge of the Sith, Obi-Wan Kenobi didn’t have a very exciting life. Tasked with watching over the young Luke, he settled for a life of anonymity among the Tatooine dunes, cunningly disguising his identity by calling himself ‘Ben’ Kenobi. Judging by the way Luke dismisses him as a crazy old man in A New Hope, this subterfuge worked and the former Jedi Master was one of the few to survive Palpatine’s purge.
But recent Star Wars writers have found his long period of isolation irresistible. After all, there are a lot of stories that take place in the gap between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope and Obi-Wan is right there not doing much. Rebels saw him appear for a memorable rematch against Darth Maul, he’s set for new adventures in the Ewan McGregor Obi-Wan Kenobi series, and now, a recent report is saying he’ll have a “sizeable” role in Andor, the upcoming Disney+ show about Rogue One‘s Cassian Andor.
But fans are wondering how dedicated Obi-Wan is to his task of staying hidden and protecting Luke if he can jet off for Andor? The report theorizes that as Kenobi had a close relationship with Bail Organa, he could provide intelligence to the nascent Rebellion, but if he’s stuck on Tatooine, what crucial information could he possibly have? Then again, we know that he’s going to reunite with Hayden Christensen as Darth Vader, so it’s looking more and more like Obi-Wan’s time in ‘hiding’ was actually kinda action-packed.
I’ve always liked the notion of a powerful Jedi choosing to become a reclusive hermit, as it plays right into the samurai movie tropes that George Lucas was toying with when he came up with Star Wars. Let’s hope that however they use Obi-Wan in the future, they don’t ruin his character arc.