Fans of Star Wars are just days away from seeing Ewan McGregor return in Obi-Wan Kenobi on Disney+. Secrets surrounding the series are tightly held, but we did get a new clip from the show that actually recontextualizes Star Wars: A New Hope, or at least the opening of that iconic 45-year-old film.
In the trailer for the series, set between the events of Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, fans saw a brutal piece of conversation between Kenobi and Joel Edgerton’s Owen Lars. Kenobi tells the reluctant uncle of Luke Skywalker that “when the time comes, the boy must be trained.” Lars responds, “Like you trained his father?” Well, a new clip released to promote the series gives us more context for this scene, but it could change the way we think about how The Skywalker Saga began.
In the clip Owen and Kenobi are arguing about Luke’s purpose in life. Kenobi says that there “is more than your farm” and that Luke should see the galaxy. Owen doesn’t respond directly, but rather just warns “Ben” to leave them alone. We then see Kenobi asking if Luke is “okay.” His nervous concern lends credibility to the theory that something Obi-Wan does puts Luke in danger. The clip shows fans that the exchange between Kenobi and Uncle Owen is even more brutal than first thought.
Not only does Owen close out his argument with the “like you trained his father?” line, but his real fear is also on display just before that. He accuses Obi-Wan of not caring about Luke’s wellbeing at all, but only what he represents to Kenobi, specifically correcting the mistakes of his past. Yes, in A New Hope Owen served the role of the "adoptive parent" who holds the hero back from starting that all-too-familiar journey. Yet, unlike Vernon Dursley from Harry Potter, Owen seems to actually care about Luke here. And that changes the way we look at A New Hope, even knowing what we do about the prequels.
In Attack of the Clones, which just turned 10, Owen and Beru meet both Anakin and Padmé when they come to help rescue Anakin’s mom, Shmi. All Owen knows is that after weeks and weeks of searching, Anakin found her and brought back her body in a day’s time. Then, barely after they finished burying her, he and Padmé have to run off to help Obi-Wan on “some damn fool mission.” The next thing Owen finds out about his brother-by-marriage is that he and the nice woman he was with are dead, Obi-Wan survived, and there is an orphan child that must be kept hidden.
There will likely be a lot of things from A New Hope that Obi-Wan Kenobi recontextualizes. The most glaring will be the purported clash between Obi-Wan and Darth Vader, played again by Hayden Christensen. However, the most interesting relationship might be the one between Kenobi and Owen. It can show that rather than just being a curmudgeon trying to keep Luke from fulfilling his destiny, Owen truly cared about the boy and wanted to do all he could to help him avoid the fate of his father, mother and grandmother. This also makes his and Beru’s brutal deaths in A New Hope have much more impact. No longer are they simply characters creating an obstacle for Luke, they are — maybe more so than Obi-Wan — his greatest protectors.
There is a lot about Obi-Wan Kenobi for Star Wars fans to be excited about. The return of Ewan McGregor, the duel with Darth Vader and the transition Kenobi makes from Obi-Wan to “Ben.” However, this series may also do just as much for the characters of Owen and Beru Lars, unwitting victims of the machinations of the dark side who only wanted to keep the youngest member of their family safe.
You can cry ugly fan tears with the rest of us when Obi-Wan Kenobi debuts its first two episodes May 27, 2022, on Disney+.