Conventional thinking says the Obi-Wan Kenobi Series is going to be a limited event, one season only. But if the series is a success, could Disney find a way to stretch it out over multiple seasons, and would they even want to?
Before the Obi-Wan Kenobi series was announced, it was hard to imagine what it could even be about, considering the backstory fans were privy to. Or at least, the backstory the original trilogy had presented to fans, which wasn’t very detailed. And yet, that never stopped fans from asking. By the time Disney confirmed Ewan McGregor was indeed returning to reprise his role as Obi-Wan Kenobi, it almost felt like the internet had been preparing for the eventuality for years.
A possible plot was always hazy, at best. Fans had always been much more concerned with getting the thing than figuring out what the thing was supposed to be about. This is especially true considering that even fans had always both recognized a plot point that could be fleshed out and sort of shrugged at how to actually do so, and fans did indeed get the thing, in the form of a Disney+ series. This means someone has both had to figure out the plot, and also the possible future implications of that plot.
Obi-Wan hiding out on Tatooine while keeping an eye on a young Luke doesn’t have the makings of a great story. And, if the original trilogy is to be believed, that’s all that happened. But it seems the Jedi Master did more than drop Luke off at Owen and Beru’s and hide away in a cave. So now the question changes from what did he do to did he do enough for more than one self-contained story? If he did enough for one season, maybe there could at least be one more?
The idea that Obi-Wan just sat around on a cave in Tatooine just drinking tea and staring out into the twin suns for decades never really made much sense. Just as it never made sense that Anakin never went looking for him. And both of these ideas were born of the need to move on with the original trilogy story. George Lucas didn’t have time, back then, to explore what might have happened in the past. Now, however, there’s nothing but time – and interest.
The Anakin from Revenge of the Sith is a far cry from the Anakin of A New Hope. So, what did that journey look like? Did it involve Obi-Wan again, in some way? What was the real reason Obi-Wan Kenobi gave up any possibility of a life to guard over Luke Skywalker? What did he know and when did he know it? Fans have always asked these questions, and the Obi-Wan Kenobi series is poised to provide some answers.
For now, it seems like the answers will be short and to the point. Though most of the plot information on the Obi-Wan Kenobi series is being kept under wraps, Ewan McGregor indicated the series would consist of six one-hour episodes. This points to a real limited series more than a story Disney is interested in building over multiple seasons. But just like it happened with The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, plans sometimes change. Or, circumstances can make them change.
Even though the entire point of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier was to build up to Sam Wilson as the new Captain America, it’s hard to believe Disney went into the series thinking that was going to be the end of these characters. There was too much set up in the series for it to be the case. It is entirely likely they could just have been building towards another movie, of course. A fourth Captain America installment has already been announced. But the way the series was set up always pointed to more.
In many ways, it still does, even beyond a possible fourth Captain America movie. Six episodes is, after all, not enough to tell more than a pretty self-contained story. Which could indeed be what the Obi-Wan Kenobi series is attempting to do. Disney, however, isn’t the type to write itself into a corner. The main players in this story will all survive the series, they have to. And that means the possibility of more will always exist.
Possibility doesn’t mean certainty. All signs point to the Obi-Wan Kenobi series intending to fill in some gaps from the original trilogy, and nothing else. George Lucas never dreamed he’d have to go back and explain every throwaway line in the original trilogy when he made it. But fans will consume a six-episode limited series just off a possibility. It doesn’t need to be more than that, even if it could.