Will ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ Kill Young Luke Skywalker in the Finale?

Continuity is a tricky thing, particularly for long running franchises. Take, for instance, Obi-Wan Kenobi, which so far has deftly weaved between the lightsaber slashes of established Star Wars storytelling to show what happened in the period between Star Wars – Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars – Episode IV: A New Hope. And then there’s the stinger at the end of this week’s episode, “Part V”, which — and spoilers past this point — teases that young Luke Skywalker is in serious danger… And may even die.

Specifically, Reva (Moses Ingram), after a stunning defeat at the hands of Darth Vader (Hayden Christensen, possibly), has discovered a recording sent by Bail Organa (Jimmy Smits) to Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) revealing that Anakin Skywalker has a son, he’s located on Tatooine, and taken care of by a guy named Owen (Joel Edgerton). And the episode ends revealing the sleeping Luke in his bed, Natalie Holt’s excellent score cresting to an ominous note. Though we don’t know exactly what will happen in the finale, it does seem like everything will climax on Tatooine, with Reva coming directly for Anakin’s son — presumably to kill him, just like Anakin killed her friends and family back during the events of Revenge of the Sith.

Look, we’ve all seen the Star Wars movies. We know Luke Skywalker, played by Mark Hamill, is alive and well in both the original trilogy, and a good chunk of the sequel trilogy. But what Obi-Wan Kenobi presupposes is: what if he wasn’t? What if Luke Skywalker is killed by Reva in the final episode? Let’s explore some possible theories.

Theory #1: Luke Skywalker Was Dead The Whole Time

Imagine if you will, Reva goes to Tatooine, tries to kill Luke, for a moment Obi-Wan seems to stop her — and then he fails. She slices Luke in half with a lightsaber. Obi-Wan screams “noooooo” in the classic Star Wars fashion. Turns out, Luke Skywalker was dead the whole time, and either the entire Saga past this point was a dream he had in the final moments of his life, Lost style, or Obi-Wan’s went insane and he imagined everything. Strike Luke down, and Obi-Wan will become more brain-broke than you can possibly imagine.

Theory #2: Luke Was Fatally Wounded, But Took A Long Time To Die

As revealed this episode by the returning Grand Inquisitor (Rupert Friend), revenge is a good reason to stay alive longer than expected. That’s immediately applicable to Reva, but what if it’s true of Luke Skywalker, as well? He wouldn’t be the first person in the Star Wars universe to get “fatally” lightsabered, and survive far past his expiration date. When Luke does finally die in The Last Jedi, maybe that’s wounds from Reva’s attack taking effect, decades later.

Theory #3: It’s A Whole Weekend At Bernie’s Thing

What that says! Luke died, and Owen and Obi-Wan have been dragging his dead body around for decades. Or maybe Max Rebo’s music is keeping him animated, a la the voodoo music that reanimates Bernie and makes him dance in Weekend at Bernie’s 2. This is a real plot, look it up.

Theory #4: Luke Is Two Jawas In A Suit

The important thing here isn’t that Luke Skywalker survives, so much as he continues to exist. So perhaps Reva is successful in killing Luke, a grief-stricken, Obi-Wan hires that Jawa he was friends with in “Part I” to stand on another Jawa’s shoulders, put on a Luke-suit, and puppet him, and then years later Peli Moto (Amy Sedaris) has a threesome with them and okay you know what, I can’t do this anymore.

Theory #5: You Can Make A Theory About Anything, But It’s The Emotions That Matter

Look, are Star Wars nerds concerned about continuity? Sure. Are there things that potentially can impact stakes and confuse fans, a la the Grand Inquisitor getting “killed” a few episodes back, despite being alive years later in Star Wars: Rebels? Sure. But ultimately you can make theories and try to speculate about things as much as you want, but the important thing in a TV show or movie is: what emotion does it elicit?

In this case, there’s a 0% chance that Luke is in any sort of trouble. He’s alive, he’s fine, and honestly it’s entirely possible that whatever goes down between Reva and Obi-Wan in the finale won’t even be seen by him while he sleeps off a hard day of drinking blue milk and pretending his house is a spaceship.

But what does it make you feel? And what does it make the characters feel? That’s always been the guiding light of Star Wars, a series that has lived and died on raw emotion more than some slavish devotion to continuity. When The Force was first introduced, that’s what it was all about… Trusting your feelings. Later, rules were established and midichlorians introduced, but nothing was more powerful than the idea that goodness exists in all of us, and gives us all the possibility of special powers.

That’s what’s happening at the end of Obi-Wan Kenobi “Part V”. Not that Luke is in any real danger, but how it may impact what Obi-Wan does, the fate of Reva, and where they end up as they continue on the way to their destinies. We spend too much time picking apart the minutiae of theories and how a line in a TV show made in 2022 doesn’t quite match up to something George Lucas tossed off over more than 45 years ago while sweating his ass off in a desert, and not enough time just allowing ourselves to trust our feelings. Particularly with a show as well directed and acted as Obi-Wan Kenobi, when it comes to the obsessive fan theories? As Obi-Wan would say, let go of your conscious self.

That said, if Luke does turn out to be two Jawas in a suit: I called it first.

Obi-Wan Kenobi streams Wednesdays on Disney+.