In less than two months, Obi-Wan Kenobi will see the return of... well, Obi-Wan Kenobi. The fan-favorite Jedi Master will be making his first live-action Star Wars appearance since 2005's Revenge of the Sith, with Ewan McGregor reprising the role for his fourth live-action appearance. Fans can expect to meet a somewhat broken Obi-Wan as the Disney+ series covers a key sequence of events during his exile.
Obi-Wan Kenobi fills in the key gap for the character left between Episodes III and IV. The saga films have more or less covered the entirety of the Jedi's life, with the series set to tell his final major journey. But there's one period in the character's life that hasn't been covered at all: his youth.
Announced a few months ago, Marvel Comics will be releasing a five-issue miniseries titled Star Wars: Obi-Wan. The line is canonically set just before Kenobi's last adventure in A New Hope, with each issue effectively serving as a memory of an event at different junctions in his life before he officially takes Luke Skywalker under his wing. The journeys shown will be entirely new, serving to represent his head-space as an older hermit.
Naturally, the first issue will be going back nearly 50 years in time to depict an Obi-Wan who's in his youth. The story will take place even before Kenobi's apprenticeship to Qui-Gon Jinn, and a first look at that issue has finally arrived.
Marvel Comic Shows Young Obi-Wan
SYFY revealed the first official preview of Marvel Comics' Star Wars: Obi-Wan Issue #1. The panels, devoid of dialogue, depict an older Kenobi on Tatooine before showing him as a young boy on Coruscant.
As a young boy, Kenobi is seen jumping and running through the streets of Coruscant with a determined look on his face.
The young Padawan shows early signs of his mastery over the Force, forcefully throwing two enemies into one another.
Obi-Wan is also seen standing in a cave amongst a more sinister looking group of people, one with horns holding a pendant in front of him.
I'm Getting Too Old For This Sort Of Thing
While Obi-Wan at the beginning of the excerpt may not be up for much running around, the Padawan seen in the issue's main events is just at the start of his life as a Jedi. It can be seen that Kenobi is rushing through what's clearly the streets of Coruscant to stop a group of thieves. The blond Padawan appears to be a friend and partner in the mission, though the two find themselves surrounded fairly quickly.
Even from a young age, Obi-Wan displayed strong abilities with the Force. It's difficult to imagine that he's any older than 10 years old here, if that, and he's capably smashing thugs and running along rooftops. While his time as a teacher to, and later brother of, Anakin Skywalker made him even stronger, the raw ability was always there.
It's no surprise that Qui-Gon Jinn selected the boy to be his Padawan - something that will be further explored in Issue #2. The novel Master & Apprentice dives into Kenobi's earlier days as Jinn's apprentice in his teen years, and things weren't exactly going smoothly for a while. They eventually became a team and formed the strong bond seen in The Phantom Menace, which would go on to be the basis for the rest of what happened to Obi-Wan in his life.
Perhaps more of this time period will be explored in dreams or flashbacks in Obi-Wan Kenobi. There's a good chance Obi-Wan will commune with Qui-Gon at some point in the story, and if his days with Anakin may be shown, perhaps the Jedi's life before apprenticeship will be shown as well.
Star Wars: Obi-Wan Issue #1 will hit shelves May 4. Obi-Wan Kenobi streams on Disney+ on May 27.
