What's the deal with Obi-Wan Kenobi?

After what feels like forever, Obi-Wan Kenobi is finally here.

By the end of the week we'll have seen the first two episodes of Kenobi but until then we can only speculate what it will be like. So it's about time we ask, what's the deal with Kenobi?

Kenobi follows Obi-Wan Kenobi between the events of Revenge of the Sith and a New Hope as he seeks to protect a young Luke Skywalker from Darth Vader's Inquisitors.

So first thing's first, who's in it?

Obviously Ewan McGregor makes his return as Obi-Wan twenty three years after his first appearance as the character. His return has been in the works pretty much since the last time he appeared in 2005, Kenobi was initially planned as a movie but was pushed back several times before being canned and retooled as a Disney+ series. There's not much more to say about this, we all know who Obi-Wan is, his story has been covered extensively in the movies and the animated series, this series will serve to bridge the gap between the clone wars and the original trilogy.

Hayden Christensen took a step back from the limelight after the very mixed reception of the prequel series, but he's back. After seventeen years Christensen returns as Darth Vader (and Anakin Skywalker?). At this point in time Vader isn't aware of Luke's existence but we do know that he faced off with Obi-Wan Kenobi between their duels on Mustafar and in the Death Star and we can assume that this is where we'll see it.

The Grand Inquisitor will appear for the first time in live action, played by Rupert Friend of Hitman fame. While there have been somewhat understandable complaints about his head shape, the Grand Inquisitor is a character that many have wanted to see in live action since his first appearance. We don't know quite how much screentime he'll have or even if he'll be the main villain, but if nothing else the Grand Inquisitor promises to be a compelling take on an antagonist that fans have loved for years.

Speaking of the grand inquisitor how about we talk about the rest of his team. The inquisitors were a team working for Darth Vader to hunt down the remaining Jedi after Order 66. We've seen them in several different titles including Rebels and Jedi: Fallen Order but now for the first time we get them in live action and I for one can't wait. The main inquisitor that we'll follow is Reva who will be hunting down Obi-Wan and future Jedi master Luke Skywalker (spoiler alert she's not successful).

Initially Darth Maul was set to appear in the series before some wholly bizarre events involving actor Ray Park led to the character's removal. While this would have been a very neat call back to the two character's rivalry throughout the saga, I can absolutely understand why the character was removed and can live without the inclusion of Maul.

Bail Organa and Princess Leia are rumoured to appear in the series in some capacity, whether this is in the form of flashbacks or Obi-Wan visiting Alderaan I couldn't say but Jimmy Smits is reportedly involved and it's been heavily suggested that a young Leia could be too.

In the last of the character appearances we'll discuss, Cal Kestis has been asked for by a great many fans and it's thought that this could be where we see him. Rupert Friend recently talked about characters "crossing over into a movie or back into a game". This could refer to the inquisitors or even Obi-Wan but many fans have latched onto his comments and suggested that it refers to Kestis. This coupled with the very heavy handed BD-1 tease in the Book of Boba Fett lead me to believe that it's only so long before we see Cameron Monaghan's Jedi in other forms of media.

Tatooine will obviously appear (as it tends to), but where else will we be headed? Let's find out.

Daiyu (pictured at the very top of the article) is a brand new planet that gives off an extremely strong Blade Runner vibe. It's similar to the ring planet we saw featured in the Mandalorian season 3... I mean the Book of Boba Fett.

We'll also be seeing the Inquisitors Castle A.K.A the Fortress Inquisitorius which is situated on Nur. It isn't the first time we've seen this one, we most recently visited it in the aforementioned Jedi: Fallen Order in the segment including the infamous Darth Vader section.

Obviously Tatooine and the Lars Homestead will also make their first live action appearance for seventeen years too, a bit of homestead based blue milk drinking action is always more than welcome.

So what are your thoughts about Obi-Wan Kenobi as both a character and series? Are you simply dying to let us know and make a feature on an upcoming podcast episode in the form of a comment? Let us know here in the Podcast Forum or down below in the comments.

We'll be discussing Rogue One: a Star Wars story and Star Wars Racer Revenge in this week's podcast episode and Obi-Wan Kenobi in the following episode. You might like it. Check it out.