Obi-Wan Kenobi: May 4th Trailer

I’m sure many of us were expecting something big this Star Wars Day (You know, May the Fourth be with you and all that), but the confirmation this morning that we would be getting a new trailer for Obi-Wan Kenobi later today was huge. And while it was only a short trailer, it was brilliant!

So let me start by checking off my usual points. Visuals: brilliant. Music: stunning. The trailer itself may not even be 90 seconds long, but it tells you everything you need to know: The Inquisitorius—most notably Reva, who has been confirmed as the Third Sister—end up on Kenobi’s trail, and his (likely) continued evasion leads to Darth Vader getting involved. Personally, between this trailer and the previous teaser, I don’t need to see any more footage promoting this!

The voiceover starts with a warning from Obi-Wan to stay hidden as “They are coming.” Now the obvious suggestion is that this is warning Owen about the Inquisitors in order to keep us safe, but that may not be the case. We finally get a shot of Kumail Nanjiani’s character, and while it is too difficult to say with any certainty, his outfit certainly resembles Jedi Robes. I suggested in a previous post that we could see another Jedi make an appearance, which would be the inciting incident that put the Inquisitors on Kenobi’s trail, and while I had suggested that it could be Quinlan Vos, it looks like it may instead be this new character played by Kumail.

We then see an argument between Obi-Wan and Owen about training Luke, and Owen’s retort about “Like you trained his father?” hits deep in our soul almost as much as Kenobi’s, while it is also a great little tease and reminder of the guilt he must feel early in the series about Anakin’s fate, setting us up for Vader’s arrival likely in the latter half of the series.

Personally I’m still a little off about the appearance of the Inquisitors we have met previously, but this trailer really suggests to me that they will have limited roles, as Reva is clearly being set up as the main antagonist ahead of Vader, while the Imperial masses—including Purge Troopers from Fallen Order—and the general scum and villainy will leave little time for much more. Oh and speaking of the scum and villainy, we hear that bounty hunters are being used, so was that 4-LOM making an appearance?!

And so with the line “You can’t escape him!” we get our first visual teases of Vader, seeing three close-ups that are unmistakeably a synthetic hand and parts of his mechanical suit being put together around his body. We already knew from casting announcements that the Dark Lord of the Sith was returning, but I love the restraint they have shown of using him in the trailers, relying on just his breath and these couple of shots. We all know what Vader looks like (though I’m interested to see how much Hayden we get to see) and we’re all excited to see the series already, so why spoil some of the most anticipated lightsaber action ever by including shots in the trailers?

Some final thoughts to end this:

• While the trailers have understandably focused on Owen (due to Joel Edgerton’s star quality and the character’s disagreements with Obi-Wan), I hope that Bonnie Piesse also gets sufficient time and focus on her return as Beru, especially as the character has been expanded somewhat in the canon books over recent years.
• Still no hint of Qui-Gon making an appearance in the series. While that doesn’t mean anything—just look at the secrets The Book of Boba Fett managed to keep—I’m trying not to expect him to appear as it may not fit the story being told
• Moving away from the trailer but sticking with the promotion of this series, the new image released today (shown below)m may be the best yet of all the Star Wars series… and that is saying something!

What did you think of the trailer? Thanks for reading.

May the Force (and Fourth) be with you…