Part V (Obi-Wan Kenobi)

By August 2017, Lucasfilm was developing a spin-off film starring Ewan McGregor's Obi-Wan Kenobi from the Star Wars films.[1] However, following the project's cancellation due to the financial failure of Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), McGregor entered negotiations to star in a six-episode Disney+ limited series centered around Kenobi.[2][3] It was officially announced by Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy at the 2019 Disney event.[4][5] At the time, Hossein Amini was writing scripts for the series, while Deborah Chow was hired to direct all episodes for the series.[6] Following Kennedy's disapproval of the scripts and subsequent rewrites, Joby Harold became the head writer and showrunner for the series in April 2020, who executive produced the series alongside Chow, McGregor, Kennedy, and Michelle Rejwan.[7] Chow and Harold worked to connect elements from the prequel trilogy and original trilogy.[2][8][9] Harold wanted to further explore Kenobi's character following the events of Order 66 and wanted him to deal with issues from his past. Chow also took inspirations from "gritty, poetic westerns" including The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007), The Proposition (2005), and the works of Akira Kurosawa.[10]

Using development of the flashback scenes featuring Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, their actors Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen were digitally de-aged to match their appearances from before the events of Episode II: Attack of the Clones.

The episode include flashbacks featuring Obi-Wan Kenobi training Anakin Skywalker prior to the events of Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones.[11] The producers explained that they were worried that the character would be behind Vader's mask for the entire series. The purpose of using this scenes was to give parallel of how the relationship Obi-Wan Kenobi and Skywalker have changed at the moment of the series taking place, with the hope of allowing the characters to overcome each other qualities though they consider that this would brought a heartbreaking and very emotive tone to the episode.[12] Stanton felt that the adherence to canon ultimately "sometimes really handicap what I think are better narrative options", and felt frustrated by the requirements of being faithful to the lore, while noting that other shows, such as Andor was not as restricted by canon.[13]

The episode stars Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi, and features co-stars Indira Varma as Tala Durith, Vivien Lyra Blair as Princess Leia, Moses Ingram as Reva Sevander / Third Sister, and Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker / Darth Vader. James Earl Jones also provides the voice for Darth Vader. Also appearing are Johnathan Ho and Oliver Ho as Jedi Younglings.[14]

Principal photography began on May 4, 2021, on the annual Star Wars Day celebration, with Deborah Chow directing, and Chung-hoon Chung serving as cinematographer.[15][16] The series had used the StageCraft video wall technology provided by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM). Filming had taken place in The Volume set, the soundstage in which the StageCraft technology is implemented, at the Manhattan Beach Studios.[17]

Visual effects for the episode were created by ILM, Hybride, Image Engine, Important Looking Pirates, Soho VFX, Wētā FX, Blind LTD, and ReDefine.[18][19]

For the flashback sequences, actor Hayden Christensen was de-aged through the use of CGI similarly used in Mark Hamill scenes for The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett.[20] This was due to Hayden Christensen being already 41 years old while during the production of Attack of the Clones he was 20 years old. Ewan McGregor was aldo de-aged for the flashbacks in order to make him look like a mid-30s man as he is currently 52 years old.[21]

Natalie Holt was hired as composer for the series, making her the first woman to score a live-action Star Wars project, while John Williams composed the "Obi-Wan Theme".[22] Originally, Chow and Holt was not sure if they could use Williams' compositions for the series, and as such, Holt created her own theme for Kenobi. Following Williams' composition for Kenobi's theme, Holt's original Kenobi theme became "Holding Hands", the musical track for when Kenobi and Leia hold hands in the episode as Chow liked her composition.[23]

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports a 81% approval rating with an average rating of 7.9/10, based on 21 reviews. The site's critical consensus reads, "The Third Sister takes center stage and Obi-Wan Kenobi regains the high ground in an action-packed installment that achieves some of the epic heft befitting a Star Wars saga."[26]