Disney Plus’ Obi-Wan Kenobi teases a brother — does Star Wars need that?

For a franchise as huge as Star Wars, finding new ways to thrill audiences isn’t so much an obligation as it is smart business. For Lucasfilm, and Disney’s parent company, it has been a difficult task to maintain the series’ nearly 50 years of existence. Is there a way to retrospectively incorporate previously unrevealed story beats into the series’ lore? Or explore the unknown cosmic expanses in this far-off galaxy? Do you want to play or lightly remix the hit songs?

We are now at Obi-Wan KenobiThis is the latest Star Wars TV series to navigate this storytelling binary. It’s not like. Mandalorian Or Boba Fett’s Book(which included blank-slate antihero type types KenobiThe well-known legend surrounding its leader, Ewan McGregor (the exiled Jedi Knight), has made it difficult to watch. Finding something new to say about a character we have already seen fight, fail, and die was always going to be the show’s biggest gamble, but KenobiHas stepped up the benirik game and increased the time between episodes III IVThe immutable laws will not allow it to go further than it is able. A New Hope.

One of the show’s biggest swings to date is the assertion that the last time Obi-Wan and his former apprentice (Hayden Christensen) crossed lightsabers was not, in fact, at the raging fire pits of Mustafar. Kenobi met Darth Vader for the first time since that fateful duel last week, and from the look of things they’ll be swinging sticks at each other again. And last week presented yet another distressing (and potentially story-breaking) addition to the Kenobi lore, a left-field reveal made by Old Ben himself, where Ewan McGregor wrinkled his weary brow at the cherubic Leia Organa (Vivien Lyra Blair) and uttered this potentially game-changing line: “I still have glimpses, flashes really… My mother’s shawl, my father’s hands. A baby. […]My brother was my father. Really don’t remember him. I wished I did.”

Photo: Disney

Another is available. Little Kenobi brother. You could say nothing. It could be a throwaway line. Or it could be the next 20 or so years’ worth of Star Wars stories. We don’t know. (Listen. As absurd as that sounds, a small, chaotic piece of me prays to the dark angel I worship. Disney simply goes for it. Baby Kenobi Adventures.)

If this line is meant to bear storytelling fruit, then Lucasfilm’s ambitions to turn Obi-Wan Kenobi, a co-lead of the prequel trilogy and a supporting mentor figure from the OT, into a legacy character have been secured. (And Rey Kenobi theorists will still lament. It could be a sign of neo-Kenobi stories being on the horizon. But it must also be asked: Is this more? Star WarsHow does this affect the saga? How does Obi Wan Kenobi get his character? Is this helping him or hurting him?

The history may have the answer. The original screenplay was written many years ago. Return of the JediThey contained the tantalizing Obimorsel: A Jedi hermit didOwen Lars was once Phil Brown. Now Joel Edgerton. This wild story beat was wisely jettisoned from the film’s final cut (after all, what could it have possibly added to the emotional stakes of Episode VI?) but it lived on in the film’s 1983 novelization by James Kahn. It might have been a seemingly harmless line — “Your mother and I knew [Vader]We knew it would eventually. However, we wanted you to be as secure as possible for as long time as possible. […] [so] I took you to live with my brother Owen, on Tatooine…” — but it whipped up a canonical mess, and has since been consigned to the Star Wars Legends scrapheap.

However, for a while, the soap operatic Kenobi family reveal kept being repeated: In 1995, it was worthy of mention. Star Wars Customizable Card Game, and Obi-Wan’s dreams of a brother named Owen found a home in a 1999 novel titled The Hidden Past of Jedi Apprentice. A dozen years later, Abel G. Peña would retcon the whole long-lost Kenobi kerfuffle in a Star Wars short story titled “Lone Wolf: A Tale of Obi-Wan and Luke.” There, grateful readers would discover that Obi-Wan’s visions of Owen Lars came from his post-Clone Wars future, not his distant past, effectively removing the burden of legacy from Obi-Wan’s shoulders and allowing the character to freely mature into the older-brother role in Anakin Skywalker’s life.

Photo: Disney

Photo: Disney

So Kenobi has reintroduced this dusty legacy trope, and it’s worth exploring, not just to establish what we know about Obi-Wan’s familial history but to consider what it adds to the character — or doesn’t. It is known that Obi-Wan had at least a father, mother and home. Stewjon is his name. And if this name seems absurd even by itself, Star Wars standards, know that “Stewjon” is a blend of comedian Jon Stewart’s name, made up on the fly by George Lucas himself during an on-air interview with the former Daily Show host. It is serious. Even more important, we have at least two other things to know about Obi Wan Kenobi.

It is known that Obi Wan held Qui-Gon Jinn, Liam Neeson’s Jedi mentor in great esteem. We also know Ben’s continued spiritual pursuit of his fallen Master, first introduced at the very end of Revenge of the Sith, is meant to explain Ben’s sudden physical dissipation upon his death during that deadly reunion with Vader in A New Hope. But it’s also a clear indicator of how Qui-Gon fits in Obi-Wan’s life; more than a teacher, Qui-Gon was a father. No one cares anymore about the sibling of Ben on Stewjon. We don’t even know his name. However, we do know Quigon. Obi-Wan was with us the day that he died. If Ben can be reunited in the second half of his life with Qui-Gon, it will mean that he is now with Qui. Kenobi, we’ll be there, too.

We also know who Anakin Skywalker is and what he meant to Obi-Wan: how things were when they first met (“The boy is dangerous,” Obi once said to his Master); how they clashed during Anakin’s formative years; how chance and war forged something powerful between these two Jedi Knights; and how eons of trust and reliance ultimately resulted in betrayal. Anakin Skywalker and Obi Wan fell apart, causing the type of destruction that only family members can experience.

As for Obi-Wan Kenobi’s family, we know the things that matter. The Jedi practice is known to take children from their parents and make them heroes or villains. The stories of these heroes are not about the small details of their lives. It is their actions and failures that make them great. Star Wars can be described as grand opera. Getting caught up in minutiae of giantic figures like Obi-Wan Kenobi merely dilutes their impact. Think about Rey. Was becoming a Skywalker defining of who she is or the accomplishments she has achieved? It doesn’t. Her story would be richer if she had been a Kenobi. It is not. It doesn’t.

For now, Obi-Wan’s memories of his kid brother are just that. How much emotion and meaning we’re supposed to glean from this line remains to be seen, but there is cause for wariness; history has proven that when it’s applied haphazardly, any expansion in the Star Wars canon can easily become a bug, not a feature. (Hello, Solo.) While the Skywalker’s story is now over, Luke and Leia still have a lot to do. Is there a better way? Star Wars Where do you go next? For now, it seems like Lucasfilm and Disney are the only options. Believe that this is the story of a family who will have something to share with future generations. EachEach character within its orbit must contribute to the cause in their unique way. The legacy of the past.