Star Wars Obi-Wan Kenobi (tv series)

[cboath]

I would love a Prequel era Obi Wan story, but I just can't see how they would do a story between ROTS and ANH. There's an extremely limited amount of stories you could do there because he can't leave Tatooine, and more realistically, could never leave far enough that he couldn't get back to defend Luke.

Why can't he leave? Especially early on?

Immediately post ROTS, the ONLY people know who of the existence of the kids are Bail, Obi, and Yoda and they aren't talking. If you presume there are other Skywalkers (not related) on the planet, a kid with that last name isn't anything that raises a flag. (just saying if there's no one else with that name on the planet, they're all a bunch of complete morons for giving the kid that name. Seems moronic that his name wasn't Luke Lars but whatever).

Not to mention, look at 7 and 8. Combined they took up what? 4-5 days? Obi could have an 8 part show that lasts a day or two. I'm sure they have contingency plans, he could just tell them to hide for a week til he gets back. The reason for leaving could also be to protect the secret, you know. Word gets to him that someone's going after Bail to try and force the secret out of him so he has to go help. We then get a story on Alderaan (so we finally see the damn place) and he has to leave to protect Luke.

It's certainly do-able and doesn't step on anything.

 

[Potroclo]

Hey what if it's actually about pre-phantom menace, padawan Obi, without Ewan? Get a young (cheaper) actor and make a fun little series with self-contained plots in each chapter, learning the ways of the jedi with little adventures. That would be very Disney too, just like the rebels and resistance series.
Edit: Heck maybe even have Ewan as older Obi hiding in tatooine remembering all of this, so each chapter's introduction is him having a flashback. Actually Liam Neeson should show up! **** and Yoda too, maybe he can give his lessons à la Carradine's Kung Fu. Have a karate kid vibe with Yoda a Miyagi-like figure with his epic quotes...
I just comented this to be cynical but the more I think about this the more I can see it working!
Re-edit: and have that very contained plot for older exile Obi spawn over several chapters, so a couple days plotline that doesn't really alter the main movies story can fit too, and we don't just see Ewan meditatiting on tatooine for a couple seconds before a fade in.
Am I the only one who would actually like something like this?

 

[BTTUK]

Hey what if it's actually about pre-phantom menace, padawan Obi, without Ewan? Get a young (cheaper) actor and make a fun little series with self-contained plots in each chapter, learning the ways of the jedi with little adventures. That would be very Disney too, just like the rebels and resistance series.
Edit: Heck maybe even have Ewan as older Obi hiding in tatooine remembering all of this, so each chapter's introduction is him having a flashback. Actually Liam Neeson should show up! **** and Yoda too, maybe he can give his lessons à la Carradine's Kung Fu. Have a karate kid vibe with Yoda a Miyagi-like figure with his epic quotes...
I just comented this to be cynical but the more I think about this the more I can see it working!
Re-edit: and have that very contained plot for older exile Obi spawn over several chapters, so a couple days plotline that doesn't really alter the main movies story can fit too, and we don't just see Ewan meditatiting on tatooine for a couple seconds before a fade in.
Am I the only one who would actually like something like this?

Doesn't float my boat. The PT characters have been done. Do something new and original. I love the sequel trilogy and anthology films, but even i am getting bored of the re-use of the same core characters.

Now the Skywalker story is ending, they should resist the urge to keep going back over old ground.

Why not show us a time where hyperdrives were new, there are no super weapons, lightsabers were not the elegant weapon of a civilised age, or when the Jedi were a brand new religion?

How about the Republic is expanding its grip on the galaxy now they have adequate hyperspace travel and comes across the Jedi on their home planet. This causes two problems 1) The jedi are unprepared for the blasters etc that the republic has, but they have the force so resist the republic "invasion". 2) There is a split between the Jedi by those who want to make peace and join the republic and offer to be guardians of peace, and the others who feel the force is more than that and want to keep their power on their world.... (beginnings of dark side followers).

This means sabers are developed by the Jedi from republic tech, and the knowledge of the force and kyber crystals.

 

[cboath]

I say just go forward, or back enough that nothing nothing of the what's been told is on the horizon. KOTOR era-ish, but not actually KOTOR.

Jump 500 years and all of what we know is ancient history and it's a veritable blank slate.

Trying to go back to pre-saber or older tech stuff gives you the same problem trek has trying to do Enterprise or Discovery in modern times. Anything they do is going to make the original look ancient by comparison. You can't really devolve the OT ships short of weaker weapons and maybe no hyperdrives. There's not much there to work with from that POV.

Don't forget there WAS a problem with a number of people viewing E1 thinking they were going to be sequels to the OT. You'll confuse the 'average viewer' backdating like that.

 

[Halliwax]

Obi wan can’t leave because the Lars family are constantly picked on, threatened, and pushed around by thugs and water taxes..

Moisture farmers are a huge target on a desert planet.. moisture private’s... thieves...

The Lars family has not only been attacked by tuskin raiders, but jabbas thugs on a constant basis

Obi wan doesn’t stay too far away from them, his mission is to protect the boy.. that’s it.. sit there meditate and occasionally beat up jabba goons..

 

[BTTUK]

I say just go forward, or back enough that nothing nothing of the what's been told is on the horizon. KOTOR era-ish, but not actually KOTOR.

Jump 500 years and all of what we know is ancient history and it's a veritable blank slate.

Trying to go back to pre-saber or older tech stuff gives you the same problem trek has trying to do Enterprise or Discovery in modern times. Anything they do is going to make the original look ancient by comparison. You can't really devolve the OT ships short of weaker weapons and maybe no hyperdrives. There's not much there to work with from that POV.

Don't forget there WAS a problem with a number of people viewing E1 thinking they were going to be sequels to the OT. You'll confuse the 'average viewer' backdating like that.

Possibly, though i tend to lean towards that confusion being caused by the fact they are part of the episodic saga. If they drop that, then i shouldn't see why it would be confusing.

I take your point though.

 

[patrickivan]

I don't know... I'm looking forward to it, but I want something more cerebral than the last few movies that were pretty much all Run and Gun (and die) COD adventures. Don't get me wrong, I love me my FP shooters, but I like my strategic play. That said, there HAS to be a couple of scenes with him using the Force and his Lightsaber. He's a Jedi Master DAMNIT! I want to see Jedi being Jedi.

I think it would also have to be done one of two ways. Either something that happens within say a year or two of arriving on his watch on Tatooine. Or, it'll be compartmentalized into 3 parts. Arrival, middle, and leading up to just before ANH. Kenobi aging. Lost hope. Apathy. Acceptance... Something like that. Maybe he cut him self off from the Force like Luke did, and that's partly why he ages badly and becomes quite rusty with the Force and a Lightsaber (with Vader). But regains his purpose after loosing it for a while none-the-less.

 

[cboath]

Obi wan can’t leave because the Lars family are constantly picked on, threatened, and pushed around by thugs and water taxes..

Moisture farmers are a huge target on a desert planet.. moisture private’s... thieves...

The Lars family has not only been attacked by tuskin raiders, but jabbas thugs on a constant basis

Obi wan doesn’t stay too far away from them, his mission is to protect the boy.. that’s it.. sit there meditate and occasionally beat up jabba goons..

Says who? You can't count books and comics as 90% of the audience has no clue about them.

 

[d_jedi1]

I could see an Obi-Wan film but I'm slightly more than skeptical about a series...
However...
I saw a thread elsewhere with people discussing a Mace Windu film.
Even there, I don't see MUCH potential for a series (unless it were designed as a limited series) but I can tell you how I'd do it.
I'd return Star Wars to it's roots... I'd make a space-samurai movie and specifically base it on the 47 Ronin.
(The historical account, not that crappy movie from a few years ago)
You could start immediately after order 66 and have Mace go on a quest, gathering whatever remaining jedi he could find.
Doesn't HAVE to be 47 but the same basic premise.
They basically hide in plain site while staying in constant communication with one another and training for the right time to strike.
Eventually, they all converge on Imperial center and assault. Fighting their way to Vader and Palpatine.
Obviously they fail in the end but they get all the way there.
This would give us more prequel era jedi battles along with seeing Vader (basically in his prime) mowing through Jedi.
Also, we'd have the opportunity to see Mace attempt to recruit Obi-Wan who would decline due to his previous task.
The best part is that this could work as a film OR limited series.

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

The only problem with that is that Lucas has said during ANH Obi Wan could have defeated Vader because Vader wasn't as strong as Anakin because of less body = less Force. So a whole group of Jedi, especially if Mace Windu survived, would beat Vader, if canon is that Mace was second only to Yoda/Dooku in dueling ability.

 

[Psab keel]

Mace Windu is dead. I'm sick of this theory that he survived being electrocuted and thrown out a window hundreds of stories up. Death has to have some consequence or else the story has no weight. Even in Star Wars. Darth Maul is dead too. Getting cut in half and returning with robot legs is incredibly stupid.

They need to stop telling stories with known characters because then it just turns to fan fiction.

 

[patrickivan]

Mace Windu is dead. I'm sick of this theory that he survived being electrocuted and thrown out a window hundreds of stories up. Death has to have some consequence or else the story has no weight. Even in Star Wars. Darth Maul is dead too. Getting cut in half and returning with robot legs is incredibly stupid.

They need to stop telling stories with known characters because then it just turns to fan fiction.

Yes the heroes die, but this is a massive fantasy, and if Anakin could survive, Mace sure as hell could.

And besides, he could have landed on something just out of view. He could have used magic (The Force).

Or he could have died. I'd like to think he lived, but between the Force lightning, the hand removal, the fall, and Order 66, if he DID survive, he may have just been so badly beaten up that he'd had been sidelined for a long time (Like Clint Eastwood after all his monumental beatings).

Darth Maul getting chopped in half and brought back was a serious issue with me though. I mean, he was cut in two... Yet Qui-Gon gets pierced and is KIA? Oh well...

 

[Psab keel]

Sure. Anything can be written and characters can be brought back to life or, plot twist! They survived!

The problem is that if they do this too often then death has no consequence and eventually it becomes a cartoon. It's fine to suspend the audiences disbelief to a point but they have to draw the line somewhere otherwise all of the dramatic tension is sucked out of the story and we aren't invested. No conflict, no story. That's the first rule of fiction.

If they insist on telling more stories with Mace Windu, why not just tell stories about his earlier adventures as a Knight?

This just further illustrates my point that it's useless to try and write further adventures of known characters in this series. A Mace Windu story isn't even in the works that we know of and we are already debating the validity of its addition.

If Lucasfilm wants to do something truly revolutionary with this series and keep it going for decades to come they need to take the risk of telling stories of totally new characters and totally new conflicts.

Otherwise this whole disconnect with the fans is just going to keep happenning and Star Wars will just fade into obscurity.

 

[Halliwax]

Says who? You can't count books and comics as 90% of the audience has no clue about them.

Tell that to Pablo... and the people in the theater after seeing maul on the holoprojector in solo

 

[cboath]

Maul being shown alive in Solo wasn't something you needed to know before seeing the flick. It was supposed to be a surprise as 90% of audience hadn't seen the clone wars or rebels and those who had didn't think they'd be bringing him across.

Saying Obi can't leave because of stuff that happened in comics or whatever isn't something the audience in general would be aware of, or frankly, care about.

That's a large complaint with the ST where they left a lot of explanation in ancilliary books that nearly all the movie going audience didn't read or likely weren't even aware of. What's on screen needs to be dependent upon what's on screen. Even that can be a bit restrictive. Ideally they want people who haven't seen a SW movie to watch the Obi show (if it comes to pass). Can't make them watch the PT and OT first.

 

[Halliwax]

Maul being shown alive in Solo wasn't something you needed to know before seeing the flick. It was supposed to be a surprise as 90% of audience hadn't seen the clone wars or rebels and those who had didn't think they'd be bringing him across.

Saying Obi can't leave because of stuff that happened in comics or whatever isn't something the audience in general would be aware of, or frankly, care about.

That's a large complaint with the ST where they left a lot of explanation in ancilliary books that nearly all the movie going audience didn't read or likely weren't even aware of. What's on screen needs to be dependent upon what's on screen. Even that can be a bit restrictive. Ideally they want people who haven't seen a SW movie to watch the Obi show (if it comes to pass). Can't make them watch the PT and OT first.

Even if we don’t take the comics into account, yoda and Obiwan talk about what to do with them. Ben says he will watch over him..

Leaving the planet full of gangster on a family that generates water... I still can’t see it being safe

To each is own though.. Obi wan leaving the planet devalues his dedication of watching over Luke... that’s all I’m saying

 

[Kovnyn]

"Hello there" a Kenobi Story.

There's your title.

The Legends/EU book Kenobi was pretty good. If you've read it, maybe you agree that it is a good base for a movie or mini series. Decent action, drama, excitement, love interest and sacrifice. You really get to understand Kenobi in a way that, to me, reflects how he was portrayed by Sir Alec. He bears a soul crushing burden, and has to come to terms with his mission of protecting Luke while the galaxy burns down around him.

Plus, Tusken culture. I don't know if Sharad and A'Sharad Het are canon, but they were briefly mentioned. As was the backlash of the tribal slaughter Anakin wrought in AOTC.

Add in a protection racket, Hutt crime lords and the occasional cheesy camp that makes Star Wars what it is, and it's a good story.

Whether or not they do it, Kenobi is one of my favorite characters, so I hope they do it right or not at all.

 

[PantheraGem]

I still want an Obi-Wan movie/movies. Nothing is going to change my tune on that, unless it doesn't star Ewan.

A series? Not as interesting to me. I don't think there's anything Disney can do to get me to buy their service.

 

[Psab keel]

Again, herein lies the problem.

They can mess it up as easily as they could nail it.

Just naming the character and already each of us has an idea in our minds about what the story should/ could be. Ben Kenobi. He's so iconic that just suggesting the idea of a movie or series based on him conjures up all kinds of ideas. Do that for any character. Darth Vader. Luke Skywalker.
It doesn't even matter how big or small a role they had either. Their is a fan base for even the most obscure characters.

We wouldn't have this issue if it was a totally new character. Which is why using events and people we already know proves how creatively limited the series really is if they have to constantly rely on everything that is already known.

Would it be cool to see Ewan portray an older Ben Kenobi? Sure! Though I seriously doubt that they will do the character justice with the script and it will likely pisses me off.

My advice is to just leave well enough alone. Venture out to another part of the galaxy and if Star Wars is truly as limitless as people claim it to be then it will stand on it's own when they try new things and reinvent it by going elsewhere.

All that being said, here's what I would like to see.

A small scale adventure/ personal journey. The tone would be more like a Western where Ben learns how to adapt to desert life after living his entire life on Corouscant. Living off what little is there in the wasteland. Fending off Tusken Raiders. Krayt Dragons. Bartering with locals. He gets reluctantly pulled into a conflict on Tatooinne, all the while trying his best to keep a close watch over Luke. We could also see him trying to live out the ideals of his Jedi teachings and forsaking his own desires to try and live simply. All the while coming to grips with his own failure with Anakin, dedicating himself to protect Luke and one day teach him the ways of the Force. We could even see him training to become one with the Force.

I've always said that if they were making anthology movies they should just pick a genre and make a movie using that tone. So for this movie the tone would be a Western.

For a Jabba the Hutt or Boba Fett movie the tone would be a Mobster movie.

For a Qui-Gon Jinn movie it would be a Samurai movie.

Use the genre and the tropes of those genres but just set them in a galaxy far, far away and they could do all kinds of cool things with it. Mimic shots to replicate certain scenes from those genres as a way to pay homage to not only the genre but to film itself and don't use modern movies to do it either because then it's too easily recognizable. Sadly I think they are just too short sighted to understand that this is what is missing from their movies. Too often these film makers don't even have much of a cinematic language enough to think like that.

Just rehashing shots from the original trilogy in a new Star Wars movie isn't an homage either because Star Wars is not a genre. Space Opera is a genre. That's why Lucas used Flash Gordon, Westerns, Robin Hood, and WWII movies and mashed them all together by mimicking shots from those kinds of movies to evoke a sense of familiarity.

Example:

In LOTR there is a shot where the Nazgul ride out on horseback from Minas Tirith to find the One Ring. The camera angle is low and the shot looks like it was taken from a Western the way it's framed. It's a cinematic homage to a genre but set in a fantasy world instead of the old west.

 

[CutThumb]

Ben could easily leave the planet to protect Luke, if for example, the connection between Luke's possible origin and the Lars suddenly having a child to look after is made, either deliberately or accidentally, and he has to pursue those that made it, in order to prevent that information getting back to the Empire and Vader. In a situation like that he would have to ensure all knowledge of Lukes presence at the homestead is expunged. There are so many possible directions and ways of doing this that are both exciting, clever and would add new mythology to the existing SW folklore.

And remember Vader knows absolutely that Kenobi and some Jedi will have survived Order to destroy them. Again I would suggest Kenobi being lured into a trap set by Vader and the Empire has loads of options.

One of the key things I always remember from TESB was Vader scolding Boba Fett about "No disintegrations" as if they had had a previous encounter or arrangement in which that had happened. Why not catch a surviving Jedi and then try to force Ben to rescue him? After all there is no reason why the last encounter Vader has with Kenobi has got to be their last battle in ROTS. It could just as easily have happened a few years after then, when Luke is still a child.

Or Ben could be called to help with another situation elsewhere, unconnected to either Luke or Vader. With a little thought and careful consideration there are more than a few good stories that could be generated from this "gap" in the records. Just because somebody is seen swinging a lightsabre DOESN'T necessarily mean they are Jedi.

One of my key disappointments with what has happened with the whole post Disney take over of SW is what Lucasfilm has done to build on existing material in new and better ways, with the exception of "Rogue One", but even that had story beats that were easy to guess .

The SW universe is full of potential. If they use the best people to open it up then they could return it to some level of greatness, which is why I am holding on to the hope "The Mandalorian" will work.