It’s May the Fourth (one of the Star Wars fandom’s favourite days, quickly followed by the Revenge of the Fifth), and Disney and Lucasfilm just shared a brand new trailer for Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi. I’m genuinely surprised that we actually get a discernible plotline within a trailer, and gosh, it feels good to know that we’re going to be getting that, instead of merely set-up for cameos… hopefully.
That being said, let’s take a look at some of the things we’ve spotted.
Daiyu
This appears to be the planet Daiyu mentioned in previews, described in Entertainment Weekly as “edgy” and “like Hong Kong” which… remains to be seen how that plays out, given Star Wars’ particular, and often peculiar, relationship with embracing aspects of Asian culture in its mythology. We know Obi-Wan goes there, don’t know why, but it’s clear the Inquisitors find a way to follow him.
Murder strut
We get a peek at the Inquisitors arriving on Tatooine, expanding on what we’ve seen before. Left to right: Third Sister (Moses Ingram), the Grand Inquisitor (Rupert Friend), Fifth Brother (Sung Kang). Obi-Wan is speaking off-screen, saying “Stay hidden… or we will not survive.” It’s not exactly word for word, but it feels evocative of the message he leaves at the Jedi Beacon on Coruscant during Order 66, warning any surviving Jedi to go into hiding.
Wee Luke
Here’s Obi-Wan watching over Luke, which we saw in the first trailer, but hey! It’s Luke Skywalker! Who doesn’t love that guy?
Get ‘em, Owen
This is the face of a man who has HAD IT with all this Jedi Bullshit™. Owen doesn’t like Obi-Wan — an earlier Marvel Star Wars comic explored why Owen thinks that Obi-Wan is nothing but dangerous, like at all times, and you know what? Fair. Like Owen’s correct. He’s right. No one should be friends with the Jedi, they’re overpowered trauma monks who think communing with “the universe” is the same thing as therapy — and judging by the Inquistors we saw hanging around, Obi-Wan sincerely offering to train Luke as a Jedi as soon as possible really is the bad idea Owen thinks it is.
Nur thanks
Here we see gathered Inquisitors and Imperial officers in the inquisition’s home base on the moon of Nur in the Mustafar system. Note that this is not on Mustafar, where Vader’s castle is, which should be clear because it’s not covered in fire — there’s only room for one edgelord in this system. The name of this hideaway? Fortress Inquisitorius, apparently, which is such an absurd name for a Star Wars HQ that I spat out my coffee.
It appeared in the game Jedi: Fallen Order, and is actually the Inquisitorius’ second base: the Inquisitors relocated from Coruscant following an embarrassing incident in which Vader’s chasing of two rogue Inquisitors led to the death of an Imperial Senator, portrayed in Marvel’s Darth Vader #20.
Pods away!
Here are some pods launching out of Fortress Inquisitorius. Who knows if these are probe droids or actual Inquisitors inside? Likely probes, and very evocative of how Vader eventually searches for the Rebel base in the opening of Empire Strikes Back. The man just loves a probe.
Wanted… For Being Too Fine
Absolute king shit, having a wanted poster make you look this daddy. The Aurebesh translation is “Wanted” in red, then under: “Obi-Wan Kenobi” and on the left and right; “offence: high treason.” and “bounty upon capture.” After all, the official story of the Jedi’s extermination in Revenge of the Sith was for an attempted coup.
Squeeeeze
As Reva says, “I want every bounty hunter and lowlife to squeeze him…” we get a glimpse of this droid hunter shooting at Obi-Wan. On first blush, it looks a lot like 4-LOM, one of the bounty hunters seen in Empire Strikes Back, but it’s uhhh dark in this screenshot, so we can’t say for sure. There’s not many other Bounty-hunting droids out there with such a notable appearance however, and this is Star Wars… so it probably is 4-LOM.
Fascist fashion catwalk
Here, Reva is flanked by two black troopers, who are actually also from Jedi: Fallen Order — known as Purge Troopers. They’re elite Inquisition troops trained in going up against Jedi, including the use of electrostaffs to counter lightsabers.
Hark! A probe droid!
OK we’re all distracted by Obi-Wan fighting stormtroopers, I get it, but look in the background: a probe droid! Bet it came from Nur.
KUMAIL?!
So here’s our first look at Kumail Nanjiani in the series — unbelievably difficult to figure out anything here, but it’s clear that he’s wearing some robes and a shirt (which might be Jedi-esque, but tbh this is the uniform of like half of Star Wars), and that he is very distressed and in need of a hug.
Toy bait
Someone unknown, holding a very cute buzz buzz droid. Will sell 70 million toys, probably — everyone needs a Baby Yoda moment now.
Rebel Transport
Reva screaming “You can’t escape him!” to Obi-Wan about, presumably Vader (the Inquisitorius reports to Vader, after all), is just fucking cool. Minor detail: the ship behind her is a GR-75 medium transport, more colloquially known as the Rebel Transport; we see it in the movies as one of the Alliance’s many naval ships in Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.
Annie?!
And, of course, we get the glimpse we’ve been waiting for — Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen, returning to Star Wars for the first time since Revenge of the Sith nearly two decades ago) reforged and rebuilt as Darth Vader. We don’t get much, just this shot of his arm and of Vader’s chest-box electronics being sealed onto his suit, but it, and the sound of Vader’s rasping breath, is enough to set us on edge.
Emotional damage
… and Obi-Wan too, perhaps? This portion of the trailer seems to intimate that Obi-Wan is watching Vader being put together, which would cause me severe emotional damage. Obi-Wan has been captured… somewhere? The background does look Imperial at least, so… is this how they meet again? At long last? Long lost lovers reunited, never to be together, caught in an epic duel of good and evil across the universe?
Who knows.
Obi-Wan Kenobi drops its first two episodes on Disney+ May 27.
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