Obi-Wan Kenobi’s story is pulling from all sorts of Star Wars sources. Four episodes in, the series has already paid homage to not only A New Hope and the entire Original Trilogy, but it’s also honored the Star Wars prequels in a fun and refreshing way. That said, given that Kenobi takes place between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, those aren’t surprising inspirations.
What’s more unexpected is how indebted Kenobi’s visual style and story are to a recent Star Wars video game. 2019’s Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order boasts a remarkable number of connections to Obi-Wan Kenobi, and in just three weeks’ time Kenobi has turned Fallen Order into an essential Star Wars text.
A Familiar Story — Obi-Wan Kenobi and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order are both set after the events of Revenge of the Sith, and both titles follow Jedi who are living in secret before being forced into conflicts with the Empire’s vicious force-sensitive Inquisitors.
Kenobi and Fallen Order also tell stories about Jedi who take it upon themselves to try and protect innocent children from falling into the Empire’s hands. In the case of Obi-Wan, the child is none other than a young Leia Organa (Vivien Lyra Blair). Fallen Order’s Cal Kestis, meanwhile, is forced to try and stop the Empire from retrieving a Holocron that contains the names of every force-sensitive youngling in the galaxy.
That’s not all Fallen Order and Obi-Wan Kenobi have in common.
Complicated Villains — Right now, very little is known about Reva (Moses Ingram), the Imperial Inquisitor who’s been leading the hunt for Ewan McGregor’s Ben in Obi-Wan Kenobi. Despite that, there’s reason to believe Reva may have been one of the younglings shown in the series’ opening Order 66 flashback, which would mean Reva’s descent into the Dark Side may have been far more complicated than suggested so far.
If her recruitment into the Empire’s Inquisitor program turns out to be as dark as many fans have speculated, then it’s possible Reva will end up having a lot in common with the main villain of Fallen Order. The primary antagonist of that 2019 game is, similar to Obi-Wan, a villainous and sadistic female Inquisitor known as the Second Sister, whose backstory is gradually revealed to be more complex than it initially seems.
The Second Sister’s arc ultimately takes a tragic turn in Fallen Order, and if early rumors and fan theories are to be believed, it seems possible that Reva’s story in Kenobi will play out in a similar fashion.
The Inverse Analysis — Heading into Obi-Wan Kenobi, it was always clear that there were going to be some similarities between it and Fallen Order. That said, it doesn’t seem like anyone expected Fallen Order to emerge as the Star Wars title that feels the most connected.
In case the parallels between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Fallen Order weren’t already noteworthy enough, both titles also feature sequences where their heroes are forced to break into the Fortress Inquisitorius. The water surrounding the Imperial structure is even used to make a quick getaway in both.
So if you like Obi-Wan Kenobi’s aesthetic, style, and story, there’s no better reason to finally play (or revisit) Jedi: Fallen Order. It’s a game that suddenly feels a whole lot more important to the Star Wars franchise than it did when it was originally released.
Obi-Wan Kenobi is streaming now on Disney+.
