ABOVE AVERAGE

When young Princess Leia (Vivien Lyra Blair) is kidnapped by Jedi hunters, Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) reluctantly agrees to leave his Tatooine hideout and try to find her.

This miniseries is a terrific example of how a simple spinoff tale can be told within a franchise without overcomplicating things. Set ten years after Revenge of the Sith (2005), the series connects comfortably and cleverly to an often maligned part of George Lucas’s creation, taking it seriously and making it look better.

Anchored by McGregor’s likable performance, the story moves fast and delivers plenty of action, including intense confrontations between Obi-Wan and his fallen angel of an apprentice.

2022-U.S. 279 min. Color. Widescreen. Directed by Deborah Chow. Teleplay: Joby Harold, Hossein Amini, Stuart Beattie, Hannah Friedman, Andrew Stanton. Cinematography: Chung Chung-hoon. Theme: John Williams. Cast: Ewan McGregor (Obi-Wan Kenobi), Moses Ingram (Third Sister), Vivien Lyra Blair (Leia Organa), Rupert Friend, Sung Kang, Kumail Nanjiani, Hayden Christensen… Benny Safdie, Joel Edgerton, Flea, Jimmy Smits. Voice of Zach Braff. Cameo: Liam Neeson. 

Trivia: Originally shown in six episodes. Originally developed as a film directed by Stephen Daldry; he remained as a consulting producer together with Tom McCarthy. The voice of Darth Vader was generated by an AI program, using recordings of James Earl Jones’s voice.

Last word: “It was very hard to tell the Kenobi story without touching upon [Anakin] and without going there. In that situation, for me, it felt like we needed Hayden for that. We approached Hayden during the development period. I just talked him through what we were trying to do with the series. And I think one of the things that he responded to the most, and that was very interesting for him, was we’re doing [these characters] in a different time period of their lives. They’re not exactly the same character from the prequels or from A New Hope.” (Chow, The Gamer)