Such debate is inevitable, however infrequently anything else right here offset the pleasures of seeing Ewan McGregor again and fully proudly owning the identify position, and a light-saber rematch with Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader (Hayden Christensen) that delivered spectacularly on that promise.
In some way, the display’s actual triumph used to be its preliminary, very artful ruse in focusing no longer on a tender Luke however quite a pint-sized Leia (Vivien Lyra Blair), setting up a bond between Kenobi and the princess whilst making a rousing excuse to carry him out of hiding and again into the arena of journey and heroism.
That used to be handiest the end of the undertaking’s inventiveness, which integrated cleverly using a flashback to supply Christensen exact display time with out being buried below that Darth Vader armor or completely ceding his voice to the nice James Earl Jones.
The ingenious spark prolonged to the finale, and provides monumental credit score to the writing staff (Joby Harold, Andrew Stanton and Hossein Amini collaborated at the script) and director Deborah Chow, who — having additionally labored on “The Mandalorian” — has greater than earned the appropriate to play a significant position in Lucasfilm’s plans will have to she make a choice to proceed running on this a part of the cinematic galaxy.
Even expecting one of the most prospers, it used to be nonetheless exciting — and for some in all probability chill-inducing — to listen to Kenobi echo his earlier phrases to Anakin through announcing “I can do what I will have to” prior to their muscular duel, or to look Obi-Wan reunited with the ghostly specter of his grasp, Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson), a gathering foreshadowed because the finish of “Sith.”
Ditto for Vader telling his former grasp, “You did not kill Anakin Skywalker. I did,” a line that feeds at once into Kenobi’s rationalization to a extra grown-up Luke about his father’s destiny in “A New Hope.”
Even though the finishing unquestionably felt neat and conclusive, it is not laborious to believe a state of affairs the place Disney and Lucasfilm plot a go back to Tatooine if McGregor’s keen. As a result of whilst lovers would possibly have their very own concepts about when it is time to journey into the dual sundown, after a undertaking as polished and commercially marketable as this one, smartly, studios will do what they will have to, too.
