‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ Is Here to Atone for the Prequels’ Greatest Sin

With the reveal of Disney+’s absolutely stacked cast for the upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi series, expectations could not be any higher. Well, for now. Expectations will definitely rise the instant set photos start leaking or an official teaser is dropped. But for now, I’m riding high on seeing that Kumail Nanjiani and Sung Kang are joining the Star Wars family. But let me tell you what I find really exciting—like, immediately Slack all of your co-workers just in case they didn’t see the news levels of exciting: Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru are back.

Long before they were desert fried skeletons, Luke’s aunt and uncle were played by two actors who have since become famous (for two dramatically different reasons). Joel Edgerton played Owen in 2002’s Attack of the Clones and 2005’s Revenge of the Sith, two films that introduced the Australian TV actor to a worldwide audience (even if Edgerton’s role was just a step above a cameo).

By his side in those two films as Beru was Bonnie Piesse, an actor whose career never really took off but she gained major notoriety last year because of HBO’s buzzy cult documentary The Vow. What a journey she’s been on, going from taking down the notorious sex cult that brainwashed her back to the role that made her almost famous in just a year. I love this for Bonnie.

But it’s not just Owen and Beru’s big return that’s worth getting excited about. They’re emblematic of why Obi-Wan Kenobi is worth getting hyped for; they’re part of a number of early signs that Obi-Wan Kenobi will finally explore all of the prequel mythology, presumably with the same level of heart and nuance that The Mandalorian brought to the galaxy. That’s such a big deal—and the prequels deserve it.

To be honest, I’m not even a prequel fan. But because I’m a Star Wars fan with access to social media, I know there are a lot of people who absolutely adore the prequels, possibly because that trilogy is their Star Wars. If I’d been 8 years younger when The Phantom Menace came out, I’d be one of them too.

The prequels have endured a reputation rollercoaster over the last 20+ years, but I’m genuinely happy to see these movies—movies I don’t even like all that much—get respect. I firmly believe that Star Wars is better when we all just agree to stop taking it so seriously and embrace all of it as the big, sprawling, beautiful uneven, silly franchise it is. Disney finally seems to be in that mindset too, considering they just made the ’80s Ewoks TV movies available to stream.

This is why Obi-Wan Kenobi is the perfect Star Wars show for this moment in time. It stars Ewan McGregor, the actor who gave the performance that everyone universally agrees was the best of the entire bunch, as Ben Kenobi, one of the most pivotal figures in the classic trilogy. The return of Owen and Beru—oh, and Hayden f’ing Christensen as Darth Vader, duh!—confirms that this show is going to atone for one of the biggest sins that I see in the prequels: they just didn’t explore anything. They introduced so many new ideas and characters, but they all canceled each other out. Dozens of new Jedi from new planets, and Mace Windu’s the only one with anything to do.

The same goes for all the villains. Darth Maul, Count Dooku, and General Grievous didn’t get to even begin a character arc. New planets, new bounty hunters, and new Jedi powers all brought to live via new technology—there was so much new that the movies consistently forgot to breathe.

This is why Star Wars has found great success on TV, with series like Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels, and The Mandalorian giving many of these new ideas the room they need to become legendary. Like, Darth Maul and Boba Fett are forever changed for the better because of what these shows have done. And TV’s Ahsoka Tano, a character who’s barely been heard in a feature film, has the richest character journey of the entire franchise!

That’s what I’m hoping for from Obi-Wan Kenobi. I’m ready for Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru, two of the very first protagonists we meet in the very first Star Wars movie, to finally get fully developed personalities and real emotional beats. And I’m excited to see what other parts of the prequels this series wants to revisit and redeem. Just one question: does Dex’s Diner deliver to the Jundland Wastes of Tatooine…?

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