Obi-Wan Kenobi has had its eponymous Jedi grasp run into a lot of returning characters from the wider Star Wars universe, from Leia and Bail Organa to Darth Vader himself. But this week, the present reintroduced a personality Star Wars fans haven’t seen in dwell motion in a very long time… a lengthy time.
[Ed. note: This piece contains spoilers for Obi-Wan Kenobi episode 6.]
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Photo: Disney
Since the first episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi, the present has teased a reunion between Jedi masters and their former pupils. Obi-Wan and Anakin, in fact, but in addition Obi-Wan and his personal grasp, the Jedi Qui-Gon Jinn. Periodically by way of the collection Obi-Wan has reached out to his grasp with the Force, however obtained no reply.
As to why he’d count on a solution from a personality who died almost twenty years earlier, that’s lined in the closing moments of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, during which Yoda knowledgeable Obi-Wan that Qui-Gon discovered a path to “immortality” by way of the Force — that’s, he found the method that permits Obi-Wan and Yoda to speak with the residing as Force ghosts in the authentic Star Wars trilogy.
The scene implies that Yoda taught him a coaching follow that might finally permit Obi-Wan to commune with his former grasp for additional coaching. In Obi-Wan Kenobi, it appears that evidently follow has not but been made excellent.
Until the very finish of the present’s finale.
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Image: Lucasfilm
“I was always here, Obi-Wan. You just were not ready to see it,” Qui-Gon tells Obi-Wan on the sands of Tatooine. He’s not particular about what has modified in Obi-Wan, however on condition that the youthful Jedi simply got here off of a confrontation with Darth Vader during which he lastly had it drilled into his head that he was not solely accountable for Anakin’s flip to the darkish facet — properly that looks as if the present’s message.
Liam Neeson goes uncredited in the episode, however the drive ghost who seems to Obi-Wan in the desert is undoubtedly the similar actor who portrayed him in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. Neeson has expressed reticence about showing in Star Wars’ Disney Plus collection earlier than, telling IndieWire simply this April that he prefers movie. “Yeah, I’m a bit of a snob when it comes to TV, I must admit, I just like the big screen, you know?”
But only a month later at Star Wars Celebration, Lucasfilm introduced that Neeson would return to the world of animated Star Wars tv for a Qui-Gon-focused episode of the anthology collection Tales of the Jedi. And with Obi-Wan, it appears the firm satisfied Neeson to dabble in dwell motion as properly. And it’s true that it’d be laborious to discover a larger display than the Volume, the huge LCD display expertise Lucasfilm leverages to provide the Star Wars TV exhibits their beautiful vistas with out on-location shoots.
Neeson isn’t the solely Star Wars veteran who returned for the closing episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi. The present additionally encompasses a temporary scene with Ian McDiarmid’s Emperor Palpatine, although his look in heavy make-up and thru hologram may disguise a variety of digital lifting, together with the speech simulation expertise Lucasfilm is now recognized for leveraging. In distinction to Neeson, McDiarmid has returned typically to the Star Wars universe, showing in Return of the Jedi, all three prequel movies, Rise of Skywalker, and voicing the Emperor in a number of animated Star Wars exhibits.
