Star Wars Releases Princess Leia Poster For Obi-Wan Series

Star Wars has release a new poster for Young Princess Leia, who is currently making an appearance (somewhat surprisingly) in the current Obi-Wan Kenobi series. Actress Vivien Lyra Blair plays the ten-year-old version of Leia, a girl who is very much still trying to find her place in the Organa family of Alderaan. In the first two episodes of Obi-Wan, a precocious and rebellious Leia managed to get captured by a gang of thugs, and hunted by the Inquisitors, setting Obi-Wan on a direct collision course with Darth Vader. 

Here’s the new Obi-Wan poster for Young Princess Leia: 

The inclusion of Young Leia in Obi-Wan has been a divisive choice (at best). There should be no criticism of Blair, as the young actress is doing a commendable job playing a very iconic character. A lot of Star Wars fans are more concerned about the larger potential continuity snags (or at least potential weirdness) of retconning Obi-Wan and Leia’s adventures started decades before Star Wars: A New Hope. It’s not that it’s a bad change in and of itself, it’s just that it seems like an unnecessary door to open – one that can (will?) lead to future complications, as well as more debate about whether these new Star Wars stories are expanding the lore and impact of Star Wars: A New Hope, or lessening it. 

It’s not an easy answer: in its initial time of release, Star Wars was the quintessential hero’s journey movie experience. It was that hero’s journey archetype that kept viewers coming back again and again to see Star Wars in theaters, and created the entire concept of “movie magic” for generations of fans thereafter. However, since the Star Wars franchise has grown into sprawling universe of stories that span generations, the beautiful simplicity of that first Star Wars movie has become anything but simple. A New Hope is now very much the pivotal midpoint of the Skywalker Saga that George Lucas always envisioned it being. In that new context, weighting the events of Episode IV to be even more resonant with the bigger character arcs and themes that have been explored is indeed an unenviable task. 

That all said, a lot of Star Wars fans came to Obi-Wan Kenobi looking for a Logan-style tale of Kenobi having to keep the faith in dark times. They wanted to see “Ben” Kenobi’s angst waiting for Luke Skywalker to grow up; his personal reflections on the Jedi Order’s fall and re-establishing contact with Qui-Gon Jinn to learn Force ghosting – and of course, those epic duels with Darth Vader. Hopefully with Leia and other characters up in the mix, we’ll still have time for all of the above. 

Obi-Wan is streaming on Disney+.