This post on my website blog is intended to give you my personal opinions on the “Kenobi” trailer (released on the 10th of March), my expectations for the show and whether I am more enthusiastic or skeptical about it.

To start off, I wanted to note that I, from the very beginning, have been fairly concerned about what this show may unfortunately not handle correctly when it comes to the lore and the original vision for the Star Wars universe of George Lucas. These doubts seem to be shared by a certain percentage of the fanbase but I had them from the very second it was announced that the show would take place in between episodes 3 and 4. The fact of the matter is that there are many issues presented with this particular time period, many of which I also possessed after watching Jamie Costa’s fan film. Worry not, I’ll go into detail about them a bit later. However, I also believe that this particular time period is currently far too overused. In the last several years we’ve had Rebels, Rogue One, Solo, Jedi: Fallen Order, The Bad Batch and many other products, such as books and comics, that were set in this timeframe. And for good reason, it is a very interesting point in time for many events to occur, however I feel that Obi-Wan would have been more deserving of a story set in between episodes 1 and 2 (like the Obi-Wan Kenobi: Age Of Republic and Obi-Wan Kenobi comic series) or before episode 1 (which in Canon has only really been covered by Master and Apprentice). I feel those time periods have so much potential as they have an EXTREMELY large time span and so much that could be explored, potentially tying it with the other prequels. However, episodes 3-4 don’t and I’m about to finally go into why I feel that way.

To start off, as may be well known by this point and as is very very strongly implied by the trailer, Ben Kenobi and Darth Vader will have the “rematch of the century”. However, Lucas very heavily implied in the films that Vader and Obi-Wan did not meet until their reunion in A New Hope, making that scene all the more emotional, tensionful and climactic, really tying it all together. Even Though IF very, very cleverly written they could technically retcon it to them having another one in between and have it make sense, that goes against George Lucas’s clear original message and interpretation of that scene, which he tried to show on screen through his trilogies. I am always in strong support of staying faithful to Lucas’s original source material, but ESPECIALLY so when it comes to key plot elements he wanted to introduce. So having another duel not only makes their long awaited rematch in the original film less impactful, but also presents another director’s vision for the story, which does not match with the original clearly hinted outline.

Secondly, at this point in time, Obi-Wan is meant to be undercover on Tatooine, quietly looking over Luke and making sure that he is completely safe and unnoticed until the time is right. In revenge of the sith Yoda directly says “Hidden, safe, the children must be kept” and “Until the time is right, disappear we will”. So I am very very skeptical about Obi-Wan leaving Tatooine for ANY reason as that would mean leaving his main duty and obligation. This is also one of those reasons as to why I feel such a show would, if it remains loyal to how the films originally presented the story, be very limited to what it can do as Obi-Wan would not be able to fight much, travel or do anything besides living a solitary life. While I’ve enjoyed stories such as the one in which he stopped the Lars family from Hutt mercenaries that demanded they pay the debt, those are relatively small-scale and self-explanatory, leaving little confusion behind. Films such as Jamie Costa’s do present a lot of problems as I sincerely doubt that nobody would come to look for those officers and, more so, that Luke, even if it’s at that age, wouldn’t remember this vivid and traumatic event and not make a connection with “Ben Kenobi”. when he was right there. As young as he may be, such events do not fade away from memory and I know that from my own life experience and that of my friends. Meaning this show has to make sure that no imperials interact with Luke in a negative way to retcon him wanting to be part of the academy, not have Obi-Wan interact with Luke in a massive way or reveal his jedi nature in front of him, have any imperials that encounter Obi-Wan have their minds be erased or be killed with a reason as to why they aren’t being searched for. This is why I feel this show stuck itself in a bit of a hole, especially by introducing the inquisitors, as I find it very unlikely that if one of Vader’s personal agents mysteriously vanished, Vader wouldn’t go to seek them out. And if he did go to seek them out, he would find Kenobi on Tatooine and Obi-Wan would NOT be able to stay there for A New Hope. All of these problems can be avoided by the show taking a much less imperial focused and more tribe/ gangster/ desert focused aspect or being set in a different period of time. However, from what we see, I fear this won’t be the case but I will cover that later.

Now that I’ve set the stage with my pessimistic introduction and explained why I’m very worried for this show, let’s go onto my positives. I really did enjoy the musical accompaniment for the trailer but, actually, not so much the Duel Of The Fates as much as that eerie and yet tragic music in the beginning, having great parallels to one of my favorite tracks “Tales Of A Jedi Knight”. I also enjoyed a lot of the colours and the cinematography, including how the shot of the guy being hung was framed, the setting of the modern-looking planet and the amount of neon colours and reflection in it as well as that cool panning shot of the ship arriving at the inquisitors’ base on the water world.

Ewan McGregor, as always, nails Obi-Wan and I give great props to the make up department for making him look like a blend of his prequel version and Alec Guiness, making it seem very fitting for the timeline. I’m rather excited to see Joel Edgerton back as Owen after his brief appearances in both Revenge Of The Sith and Attack Of The Clones.

Lastly when it comes to what I did enjoy, I was quite intrigued by the idea of the Lucasfilm logo fading into sand, very unique and smart.

But now I do have to return to some negatives and some that stuck out to me from my very first watchthrough of the trailer. I was actually unsure if anyone else would feel this way but I do see a large number of fans agree with me on this and I think the argument is valid. I am of course referring to the makeup and prosthetics of the inquisitors, more specifically the infamous and fascinating Grand Inquisitor. There are MANY, MANY, MANY, MANY things that didn’t quite fit for me with this version of the character and, though some may say that these are extreme nitpicks, when a large enough number of tiny details is completely off, the entire picture starts to get a little tainted. To start off, my main problem is that I feel the prosthetics are far too heavy and not in a good way. The face feels very round rather than more stretched out and oval like, like with the pau’ans in Revenge Of The Sith and especially the Grand Inquisitor in Rebels. Many have said that this is because the features are more exaggerated in cartoons, such as Dooku, but I’d argue that the features in Rebels are far MORE REALISTIC and LESS over the top and unusual than the ones here, it looks far more sort of cartoony than the actual animated version and I will apply this to the prosthetics being of the incorrect proportions. I will also say that the Grand Inquisitor in rebels had a much taller, slimmer, almost eerie appearance, which really highlighted his agility. While we cannot entirely judge this just yet, especially since we didn’t see much movement from him, he does appear to be less uniquely and tall shaped than his species’s counterparts. His expressions also appear to be far less unique and intimidating, with him missing the famous pau’an teeth and lacking the incredible amount of wrinkle and skin movement, which I personally felt really visually represented his personality.

But lastly, I do wish to say this about him: I, in general, have always been for the idea of casting different actors in live action to their animated counterparts. I feel that, given Hayden, Ewan, Frank Oz, Ian McDiarmid, Toby Longworth and others were replaced in The Clone Wars and didn’t get the opportunity to voice their characters, it would be more fair if voices that originated in shows also didn’t get a chance to portray their characters in live action. However, I feel that this idea should only be used when the actor they choose for the live action clearly has a reason to be chosen and fits the part better for live action in terms of physical appearance. With this particular character, I have always been for getting Jason Isaacs back. To start off, Jason is very much a constant live action actor and a very popular one at that, having played roles such as Lucius Mafoy ever since the early 2000s. He is very well known for his facial mannerisms, body movement and physique and also has a very unique and unsettling (in a good way) face. He has the right body type for the Grand Inquisitor, the right facial features and it can be clearly interpreted that the villain was very much inspired by him, therefore I do not YET entirely comprehend why the filmmakers chose someone who so far to me, seems a little bit inferior, as the live action version. I guess I could be blamed for putting my expectations for a live action Grand Inquisitor to be Jason a bit too high, but I genuinely always felt like the directors intentionally cast such a well known live action performer with his physicality as the voice in order to one day show him as the live action portrayal. But Jason also has a very unique voice: it’s raspy when it needs to be, smooth as silk when needed, has a very pleasant and yet evil and vicious, deep element to it and is always very recognizable. So while I’m okay with a different actir not necessarily being as memorable, I feel like this particular one, whether it’s due to the direction or his own vocal range, lacks that instant recognizability. Because even after the Grand Inquisitor was revealed, it took me a second to put together that that voice belonged to this character and I feel like this sort of villain needs that instant shocked recognizability without the face reveal to give the effect the directors wanted. But here’s hoping that this is just a snippet and I’ll enjoy this character much much more when it comes to the full show!

Lastly, another problem with the makeup of the inquisitors that I wanted to address is the Fifth Brother. We saw too little of him to fully make a judgement but I personally felt as if there was no expression on the mask. For the several seconds that he was on screen I did not notice any facial movement. When it comes to characters in a show with such a high budget, it is crucial to me that they have a lot of mannerisms, even if they are costumes. When you look back at the neimoidians, pau’ans, Twi’leks and other creatures in all the other media, they always had every tiny winkle and facial feature moving, so lacking that made me feel as if the Fifth Brother was simply wearing a mask. Had this been a mon calamari or trandoshan, I would not mind as they are known to be that way but Fifth Brother is very humanoid and also known for his crazy, evil expressions, making him appear to lack charisma and life in this version.

But, once again, these are all criticisms that I could be totally wrong about as we only saw glimpses of what is to come so far. I truly do hope that this show does well and whenever I criticize Star Wars, it is ONLY because I LOOOVE it so much and am so desperate for it to live up to the very high standards established by many past works. Even Though I fear this show may have made some grave errors going back to its concept, I already have many ideas myself as to how it could be saved and how this show, even when it seems to be putting some aspects of the continuity in jeopardy, could succeed!