The man behind Disney animated series Star Wars Rebels, Dave Filoni, has spoken about the much anticipated appearance of Obi-Wan Kenobi, as glimpsed in the midseason trailer.
The series, which is set before the events of Rogue One and the Original Trilogy, sees a group of Rebels undertake various missions against the Empire. At this point in the timeline, Obi-Wan is still looking after young Luke from afar and the story of Rebels has provided us with a chance to meet the infamous Jedi via a returning and vengeful Darth Maul.
Maul is keen to settle old scores with Obi-Wan, the man who cut off his legs in their Phantom Menace duel, and is now tracking down his old foe. This is of course is leading to the show’s most anticipated character appearance ever, as it will provide answers to all kinds of questions regarding Obi-Wan’s physical state before his fatal meeting with Darth Vader during A New Hope.
The show’s creator spoke about the upcoming appearance with comicbook.com, stating that: “I’ve always said, it’s the same thing with Ahsoka. It has to be valuable to Ezra. This experience, whatever it is, whatever form it takes, has to be valuable to the characters that are the center of Star Wars Rebels. There are a lot of things that I could do in Star Wars, and I try to do things that work with the story group to be true to the characters and where they need to go. It’s surprising sometimes where they go. I would say it’s surprising at the end of the day, and I don’t want to give anything away, if we wind up in the presence of an old wizard, that would be a surprising thing to pull off.”
“It’s not the most surprising thing to attempt to include Obi-Wan, and we’ve been, I think, pretty good,” he continued. “The way we included him in the pilot of Rebels, I really liked because it was a way to have him without really interfering, and it spoke to a moment in time for the characters. So, obviously I’ve been very fortunate over the years when we do do these Legacy characters. James Arnold Taylor was playing him in Clone Wars brilliantly and did a fantastic job, and then brought that back in Rebels when he’s playing the Clone Wars era Obi-Wan. I have Stephen Stanton now, who’s portraying this particular, if that’s Obi-Wan (laughs), whoever it is”.
Whatever takes place when Obi-Wan returns is bound to be interesting and for a show that has handled such beloved fan favourite characters so well in past episodes, viewers can be confident that whatever happens will be handled with respect.
Star Wars Rebels airs on Saturdays at 8.30pm on Disney XD.
Originally published February 21, 2017. Updated December 16, 2019.
