Happy Star Wars Day! The most exciting (and pun-filled) day of the Star Wars calendar is finally here, and it brought with it a brand new Obi-Wan Kenobi trailer. While many of the shots have been seen before, there were also new clips that included a confrontation between Obi-Wan and Uncle Owen, and more looks at the Inquisitors hunting Jedi still in hiding.
But the most exciting part of the trailer was a look at Hayden Christensen reprising his role as Darth Vader. This moment may be brief, but it reveals a lot about Vader’s role in the series.
The only glimpse of Vader in the trailer is a shot of what appears to be Christensen putting on his suit. In a roundabout way, this answers the question of how Christensen would play Vader despite not providing his voice in the original trilogy: We’ll see him out of the suit. If you look closely, you can even see burned skin.
This also corroborates an earlier leak saying Vader would first appear in a bacta tank shown at the end of Episode 2, much like the multiple bacta tank scenes in The Book of Boba Fett. It would be our first look at Anakin’s de-suited body since the end of Revenge of the Sith, but considering the healing powers of bacta we’ll probably see him looking a bit more human.
Considering we know Anakin ends up at least partially healed before his demise at the end of the original trilogy, a bacta tank scene would make sense. But this image also promises that we’ll see more Anakin than we think.
Anakin would presumedly put on his suit alone. This means there will be scenes without Obi-Wan Kenobi present — part of the narrative will belong to Anakin and Anakin alone. Does that mean we’ll see a narrative split between the two, or just a few menacing cutaways to Anakin like the villain scenes we see in The Mandalorian?
With the huge fan demand for more Anakin, this sneak peek may be just the tip of the iceberg, and possibly the start of a series that fleshes out his tragic character as much as it focuses on Obi-Wan.
Obi-Wan Kenobi premieres on Disney+ May 27, 2022.
