Star Wars: Lucasfilm President Address Reports of Original Plans for “Rey Kenobi”

Star Wars has been going through a bit of a renaissance with series like The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and numerous upcoming projects for the Disney+ streaming service. Lucasfilm has pivoted from from using film as their main storytelling platform due to the failure of their last film, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. The Rise of Skywalker has plenty of issues, but one major one was Rey’s parentage. In the film, Rey is revealed to be a Palpatine and fans hated that. Before the film premiered there was a rumor that the character could be related to Obi-Wan Kenobi, which would have satisfied a lot of fans, but it seems that it wasn’t true. In a new interview with Vanity Fair, Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy revealed that Obi-Wan Kenobi was never going to be related to Rey.

“The bigger issue is talking about Obi-Wan as a Master Jedi, and the issue of attachment and selflessness. In order for Obi-Wan to have a child, you are really, really impacting the rules around the Jedi,” Kennedy told Vanity Fair. “What does that mean? If that were explored—and certainly there were a lot of ideas being thrown around—but anything to do with Obi-Wan in that regard was pretty much off the table because it flies in the face of everything George created in the mythology. We’re not rigid about it. It’s certainly open for discussion all the time. But that’s a pretty significant tenet in the mythology of the Jedi that we’d be reluctant to mess with.”

The next Star Wars series to stream on Disney + will be Obi-Wan Kenobi. The series will see the return of Ewan McGregor as the titular character alongside Hayden Christensen as Darth Vader. McGregor recently revealed to Total Film if he would reprise his role outside of the solo series, and it seems that the actor would be “totally up for that.” He also revealed how it felt to return to the role and detailed the experience.

“It was nice to come back and to bridge that gap between me and Alec Guinness,” the actor told the magazine. “I got as much, or more, out of playing him this time than I did in the first three movies put together. That’s to do with the writing, and the people we were making the series with, and the technology, and how different everything is.”

Lucasfilm and Disney+ describe the series as follows: “During the reign of the Galactic Empire, former Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi embarks on a crucial mission. Kenobi must confront allies turned enemies and face the wrath of the Empire.” Obi-Wan Kenobi will premiere May 27th, 2022 on Disney+. The series stars Ewan McGregor, Joel Edgerton, Bonnie Piesse, Kumail Nanjiani, Sung Kang, Moses Ingram, Indira Varama, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Rupert Friend, Simone Kessell and Benny Sadfie. 

What do you think about Kathleen Kennedy’s comments? Would you have preferred Rey to be a Kenobi? Let us know your thoughts either in the comments section or by hitting our writer @NateBrail up on Twitter!