Lucasfilm’s latest Star Wars series, The Book of Boba Fett, has received a mixed response from critics and fans. The show had pacing issues, its storytelling was disjointed and unfocused, and it turned into a whole other series for a couple of episodes in the middle. After the finale episode struggled to pull it all together with an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink Battle of Tatooine, The Book of Boba Fett has left a bad taste in some fans’ mouths.
The series wasn’t a complete disaster, of course. It had more than a few saving graces, like Boba riding a rancor, Mando and Grogu’s heartfelt reunion, and a live-action Cad Bane rendered as a Lee Van Cleef spaghetti western villain. Ultimately, The Book of Boba Fett ended up being more like The Mandalorian season 2.5 than a focused Boba-centric spin-off. It lost interest in Boba’s plodding gangster narrative in the first half of the series and just shifted the spotlight to the Mandalorian in the second half.
Disney announced the release date for Obi-Wan Kenobi off the back of The Book of Boba Fett finale. Ewan McGregor’s six-episode return to the role of Master Kenobi will kick off on May 25. While this was previously one of the most highly anticipated shows of the year, following the disappointment of The Book of Boba Fett, some Star Wars fans are less excited for Obi-Wan Kenobi. But those fans shouldn’t be disheartened. While Lucasfilm is overseeing both shows, they’re being spearheaded by completely different creative teams.
The Book Of Boba Fett Was More Like The Book Of Din Djarin
As a direct spin-off from The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett was helmed by The Mandalorian’s central creative partnership of Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni. The duo teamed up with Robert Rodriguez, who directed Boba’s return to action in The Mandalorian’s season 2 episode “Chapter 14: The Tragedy.” In its first few episodes, The Book of Boba Fett set itself up as a standalone story about Tatooine’s criminal underworld, but it soon tied into the Mando-verse with a setup for Ahsoka’s spin-off, a jaunt to Luke’s Jedi academy, and an entire episode of The Mandalorian. Unlike The Book of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi will be a true standalone story. It has no links to any larger narrative arcs (except for the Skywalker saga, of course) and it was developed as a singular vision for Obi-Wan and Anakin’s relationship at the midpoint between Episodes III and IV.
All six episodes will be directed by Deborah Chow, who previously helmed The Mandalorian episode “Chapter 3: The Sin.” This episode was a crucial turning point for the series, as Mando broke the bounty hunter guild’s rules by returning to the Client’s compound and saving Grogu from his nefarious cloning experiments. “The Sin” turned The Mandalorian from a fun new Star Wars adventure into a must-see water-cooler show. Chow made Mando’s gearshift knob a poignant visual motif that has carried through subsequent seasons of The Mandalorian (and even came back in The Book of Boba Fett). She’s clearly a great director with a focus on characters and their relationships, both narratively and visually, which is perfect for the story of Obi-Wan and Vader’s heartbreaking allies-turned-enemies dynamic.
Just as all six episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi will be directed by the same person, they’ll all be written by the same person, too: Joby Harold. While he has some impressive producing credits under his belt, Harold has yet to prove himself as a writer (he’s working on the upcoming Transformers: Rise of the Beasts). But at least Obi-Wan’s story is being told from beginning to end by the same writer, and that writer isn’t the creator of some other Star Wars character who’s going to swoop in halfway through and steal the spotlight.
Obi-Wan Might Share Boba’s Tatooine Problem
Based on the premise alone, Obi-Wan Kenobi could share one of The Book of Boba Fett’s biggest problems: too much Tatooine. Boba’s adventures were confined entirely to the familiar environments of Tatooine, squandering the spacefaring potential of Star Wars stories. Since Obi-Wan Kenobi is set during Obi-Wan’s exile on Tatooine, it could suffer from the same problem. Hopefully, like the original 1977 Star Wars movie, Obi-Wan’s series will use Tatooine as a plain, dusty springboard into a dazzling intergalactic adventure hopping from planet to planet.
One of the few great things in The Book of Boba Fett was Temuera Morrison’s performance. It’s been fun to see Disney’s Star Wars content taking perfectly cast actors from the movies and giving them more screen time to deepen and develop their characters in new projects. Obi-Wan Kenobi has this in spades, bringing back Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan, Hayden Christensen as Darth Vader, Joel Edgerton as Uncle Owen, and Bonnie Piesse as Aunt Beru. No matter how the story turns out, it’ll be great to see all these actors back in their iconic Star Wars roles.
Obi-Wan Kenobi will stream on Disney+ from May 25. All episodes of The Book of Boba Fett are streaming now.