Obi-Wan Kenobi: Original Star Wars Trilogy Character Rumored for Key Role

Warning: this story contains potential spoilers for Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi, streaming May 25 on Disney+. Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) will be the only hope for a young Princess Leia once more, according to a new rumor. The Star Wars spinoff reportedly cast Vivien Lyra Blair (Bird Box, We Can Be Heroes) as a young Leia Organa, who will need rescuing when the Alderaan princess finds herself taken prisoner ten years after the events of Revenge of the Sith. In the finale of George Lucas’ prequel trilogy, twins Leia and Luke Skywalker are separated at birth when their mother, Padmé Amidala (Natalie Portman), dies heartbroken over Anakin Skywalker’s (Hayden Christensen) fall to the Dark Side. 

In Obi-Wan Kenobi, the exiled Jedi Master will undergo an “important mission” to rescue the 10-year-old Leia, according to StarWarsNews.net. The princess is “held prisoner in a Cantina-like establishment” with a mix of “new and familiar creatures,” according to the report, which claims Leia’s adoptive father, Senator Bail Organa (Jimmy Smits), will also return. 

McGregor previously confirmed the series would follow Obi-Wan into exile on Tatooine, where the hunted Jedi watches over the young Luke in the era of the Galactic Empire. 

“He has this one task left, which is to keep Luke safe,” McGregor said in a first-look sizzle reel. Added director Deborah Chow, “This is quite a dark time that we’re coming into with him, just being a Jedi — it’s not safe. There’s Jedi hunters out there.” 

A previous report claimed Princess Leia is “the impetus for the whole show … [who] gets Obi-Wan into another adventure” taking him off-planet. Even as the Jedi hides the Skywalker children from their Sith Lord father, Obi-Wan and Darth Vader are primed for what producer Kathleen Kennedy has called “the rematch of the century.”

“We couldn’t tell the story of Obi-Wan Kenobi without addressing Anakin or Vader,” Chow said in the sizzle reel, adding audiences will “definitely see Obi-Wan and Darth Vader get into it again” for the first time since their dramatic duel in Revenge of the Sith. The master and student meet a final time years later in Star Wars: A New Hope, where Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) entrusts the elder Obi-Wan (Alec Guinness) with Rebel plans to the Death Star. 

Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi premieres May 25 on Disney+. 

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