Why The Obi-Wan Kenobi Trailer Has Some Fans Worried
Ewan McGregor is finally returning to the "Star Wars" universe. The Scottish actor last reprised his role as the Jedi master Obi-Wan Kenobi nearly two decades ago in 2005's "Revenge of the Sith." The upcoming limited series will finally show McGregor as a wiser and jaded Kenobi after the fall of the Jedi Order.
Though plot details are slim on "Obi-Wan Kenobi," the series will take place before "A New Hope," showing the Jedi master as a hermit who watches over a young Luke Skywalker on Tatooine. In "Obi-Wan Kenobi" the titular character will also face off against the Empire's Inquisitors and Hayden Christensen's Darth Vader, formerly known as the Jedi apprentice Anakin Skywalker.
The first trailer for the highly-anticipated limited series dropped in early March and teased the return of some familiar characters, including Joel Edgerton's Owen Lars, Luke's uncle. While audiences didn't get to see Christensen's Vader in the trailer, the character's iconic mechanical breathing could be heard, hinting at a (likely chaotic) reunion between the former Jedi master and apprentice.Though it appears that the majority of the series will take place on the Skywalker's native Tatooine, the trailer briefly suggested the never-before-seen planet Daiyu, which has been described as a place with a "Hong Kong feel to it."
While the first trailer for the "Star Wars" series provided a promising look at Kenobi navigating a post-Jedi world, some fans aren't completely sold on the series. A few voices have taken to Reddit to share their concerns.
Obi-Wan Kenobi doesn't seem to have a lot of aliens
A Reddit thread focused on the first trailer pointed out how the Tatooine scenes don't feature many aliens, just humans. Tatooine has historically been represented as a bustling planet filled with a diverse array of creatures, so it is striking to some fans how the sequence in the trailer mostly features humans. User u/whiskeyclouds points out how canonically it might not make sense to display aliens in the show's time period as "aliens were considered 'second class citizens'" by the Empire.
On the other hand, u/Kane_richards suggests that like another sci-fi franchise, the prevalence of human faces comes down to cutting costs. They say, "For the same reason Star Trek is like 90% humans and the 10% of aliens tend to be humans with a wee ridge somewhere on their face, maybe some spots. Money." u/yunggravyintern points out how the post only discusses "literally one scene," and that the residents in the trailer "look to be mostly locals since they're dressed in the usual Tatooine garb." User u/AmanitaYojimbo reminded readers with a mostly glossed-over fact: "The Inquisitors aren't human."
u/skitgonegat proposes an interesting question to readers, asking them, "Would you rather more aliens, or Kenobi?" A live-action Obi-Wan Kenobi hasn't been seen since 2005's "Revenge of the Sith," so it makes sense that the trailer emphasized the Jedi's return. Fans will just have to wait and see if "Obi-Wan Kenobi" features a medley of aliens when it debuts on Disney+ on May 25.