Obi-Wan Kenobi Writer Previews “Emotional” Final Episodes

Warning: this story contains spoilers for Wednesday’s Obi-Wan Kenobi Episode 4. “Your body is not the only thing that needs to heal, Ben. The past is a hard thing to forget,” Tala (Indira Varma) tells “Ben” Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) in “Part IV” of Obi-Wan Kenobi. “You just need time, that’s all.” Badly burned after his encounter with the Sith Lord Darth Vader (Hayden Christensen) — a reversal of the lightsaber duel between Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi on Mustafar a decade earlier in Revenge of the Sith — Ben replies, “Some things can’t be forgotten.”

In an interview with EW, head writer and executive producer Joby Harold hinted the past won’t be forgotten in the “emotional” final episodes of the six-part Star Wars series, concluding June 22 on Disney+. 

“One of the challenges with the show is we know where it begins, and we know where it ends,” Harold said of the final confrontation between Obi-Wan and Darth Vader aboard the Death Star nine years later in A New Hope. “And part of the fun of it was, in the journey in between, taking us to places maybe you wouldn’t expect, and some surprises along the way. But hopefully there’s a satisfaction to landing the plane back where we all imagine it’ll end up, vis a vis Episode 4 and A New Hope.”

Harold teased, “So there’s some emotional stuff ahead. There’s more surprises ahead. And hopefully when everything is concluded, we’ll be able to look at the whole thing as a complete story, and some of the earlier choices will make sense. So I’m just excited for all to get out there.”

Conceived as a six-episode limited series exploring the events between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, recent online rumors claimed Obi-Wan would return for a second season at Disney+. (The two-part series premiere on May 27 was the service’s most-watched Original series premiere globally to date, topping The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, according to Disney.) 

Asked about an Obi-Wan Kenobi Season 2, Harold said, “It’s been very gratifying, the reception and the fact that so many people have been watching it. And it’s lovely to hear that there’s an appetite for more internally and on the outside.”

He continued, “This story was always intended to be a complete limited story in six chapters, so that was my concentration and [director Deborah Chow’s] concentration and our focus. And what happens in the future happens in the future. But right now I’m so focused on this that I’m just looking forward to the remaining chapters coming up.” 

Obi-Wan Kenobi “Part V” premieres Wednesday, June 15, followed by “Part VI” June 22 on Disney+. 

Starring Ewan McGregor, Moses Ingram, Rupert Friend, Joel Edgerton, Bonnie Piesse, Indira Varma, Sung Kang, Grant Feely as young Luke Skywalker, Vivien Lyra Blair as young Leia Organa, and Hayden Christensen as Darth Vader, Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi is now streaming on Disney+.