By Josh Bate
Obi-Wan Kenobi is right around two months away, and anticipation is building following the release of the first trailer earlier this month. This tease showed first looks at Ewan McGregor’s return to Star Wars after 17 years, as well as the Grand Inquisitor’s live action debut. A new villain, Reva, is also shown as she aggressively ignites her red lightsaber on Tatooine.
Based on the trailer, there seems to be a myriad of villains in Obi-Wan Kenobi. Given Kathleen Kennedy’s tease that Kenobi and Darth Vader would be fighting again in a “rematch of the century”, it seems likely that the climax of this limited series is with these two iconic characters. However, it’s unclear how much Vader will actually be in the show beyond this, and the inclusion of the Inquisitors suggests they might be the foot soldiers that have the majority of the screen time, keeping the seat warm in a sense for Darth Vader as he arrives towards the end of the series.
In the trailer, the Grant Inquisitor seems to describe a plan to lure Jedi out and, more broadly, appears quite a bit in this first look as he narrates much of the teaser. He appears to have at least one action sequence as he ignites his unique spinning red lightsaber, and can be seen in three different locations alone in the trailer. Whether or not he is the series’ main villain remains to be seen, but his role seems relatively substantial nonetheless. However, given that fans know his fate as he appears later on in Star Wars Rebels, the Grand Inquisitor seems the least likely of these key players to occupy the central antagonist spot.
Reva is another character who could be the main villain, and the fact that she is a brand new antagonist created for Obi-Wan Kenobi could support this idea, as her fate or what happens to her is completely unknown, unlike the Grand Inquisitor. She could die in this season, turn on the Empire, or live and appear in another Disney+ series, meaning that the mystery is still in tact. Plus, Moses Ingram’s casting means that she will be a historic first for the Star Wars franchise as a Black female villain, meaning there’s an opportunity to make Reva even more significant here.
There’s also the small matter of Darth Vader, the character Star Wars fans have seen so much of but, at the same time, also can’t seem to get enough. Hayden Christensen is confirmed to appear as Vader in the series, but it’s unclear if he is going to appear as the character is in the suit or just for flashbacks and bacta tank scenes. Regardless, Vader will square off against his former master at least once in these six episodes, and given the history the Sith Lord has with Obi-Wan, it‘s almost a certainty that he will be the central villain, even if he doesn’t have as much screen time as some of the other characters.
This means that fans might see characters like Reva and the Grand Inquisitor more than Vader, but when the series comes to a climax, it will more than likely be the Sith Lord that takes center stage yet again.
Check out the trailer for the show here:
Obi-Wan Kenobi premieres May 25.
Images and video courtesy of Lucasfilm and Disney