Star Wars still relevant after all these years

In this galaxy, right now through the 2000s, the Walt Disney Company is doing something miraculous. It continues to expand the Star Wars Universe without damaging the famed franchise’s reputation, or violating the spirit of George Lucas’ original trilogy from 1977 through 1983.

While not every hardcore Star Wars fan agrees or accepts some of the Disney team’s efforts, the new spin-offs in the aftermath of the latest trilogy have enriched and even elevated the originals.

This could not have been done – dare I say – by Lucas himself. His imaginative powers had peaked, then flatlined into fussiness as he occasionally commented on what Disney has accomplished since he sold Lucasfilm to the studio.

Risky TV series

The latest Disney creation is Obi-Wan Kenobi, a six-part mini-series that followed in the vapour trail of The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, both of which are due to produce more episodes. Next up, later in 2022, is Andor. This is Tony Gilroy’s prequel to the great theatrical film Rogue One (2016). All of these spin-offs are found on the Disney+ streaming service. None has been or will be seen in theatres.

Among the television series, none was riskier than Obi-Wan Kenobi, directed by Deborah Chow. The story is set 10 years after the end of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, Lucas’ last hurrah. It stars Ewan McGregor as a burned-out and disillusioned Obi-Wan – an echo of the aging and initially bitter Luke Skywalker, played by Mark Hamill in the final theatrical trilogy. He only reluctantly agrees on a daring rescue of a kidnapped child, Princess Leia (played by a firecracker youngster, Vivien Lyra Blair).

Obviously, by having McGregor reprise his Obi-Wan character from Lucas’ prequel trilogy from 1999 through 2005, Disney and director Chow are deliberately referencing the most divisive period in Star Wars history. Lucas was almost universally condemned for the storytelling in the theatrical trilogy, which was Episodes I through III in the Star Wars timeline. Critics trashed the actors for stilted acting – particularly Canadian star Hayden Christensen, who played Anakin Skywalker as he morphed into Darth Vadar.

Startling results

Let’s be blunt: The actors were caged in by the banal and sometimes stupid lines writer-director Lucas insisted on giving them because he was still stuck in his concept of a serial (a style of theatrical short from his childhood).

Christensen now reprises his role as Darth Vadar and – in flashbacks to his pre-Darth days, when he is just turning to the Dark Side – as Anakin. Chow’s triumph gives us two brilliantly staged light sabre battles, one between a young Obi-Wan and Anakin and one between a desperate and older Obi-Wan and an arrogant Darth Vadar.

The results are so startling, dramatic and so good that the mini-series serves as a redemption for McGregor, Christensen, and the storyline that Lucas mishandled in the theatrical trilogy. Doing that really is a miracle in Hollywood terms. I celebrate it as someone who matured as an adult and a film critic while watching the earliest Star Wars movies.

While the Obi-Wan Kenobi series is now complete, seeing it is making me eager for more installments of The Mandalorian (which is already brilliant) and The Book of Boba Fett (which is tons of exciting fun). Star Wars is still relevant.