The “Star Wars” show revealed Thursday night that “Obi-Wan Kenobi” will premiere on Disney+ a few hours earlier than planned.
Beginning at 9 p.m. PT, West Coast fans will be able to see the first two episodes of the show, which stars Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen. They were supposed to go on sale at 12 a.m. at first.
The announcement was made in a tweet by the official “Star Wars” account. The tweet states, “The time for @ObiWanKenobi has arrived… early.” “Start streaming the first two episodes TONIGHT at 9 p.m. PT on @Disneyplus.”
“Star Wars” fans were stunned with a premiere screening of the show at 7 p.m. PT earlier today at the Star Wars Celebration convention in Anaheim, Calif., and now viewers at home will be able to watch “Obi-Wan Kenobi” early as well.
The Disney+ series is the result of years of planning at Lucasfilm to bring McGregor’s role as Obi-Wan Kenobi from the “Star Wars” prequel trilogy back to life. Originally, the actor was set to star in Stephen Daldry’s (“The Hours”) standalone feature picture. Following the box office disaster of “Solo: A Star Wars Story” in 2018, Lucasfilm abandoned standalone films in favour of making shows for Disney+, and the phenomenal success of “The Mandalorian” rekindled hopes that McGregor would once again don Obi-robe Wan’s for a streaming series.
The actor ultimately confirmed the news in August 2019 at the D23 Expo, however a scheduled shoot in 2020 with “The Mandalorian” director Deborah Chow was postponed as the initial head writer, Hossein Amini (“The Alienist”), left the project. The six-episode series was again postponed due to the epidemic when Joby Harold (“Army of the Dead”) was appointed to take over. In February, Disney stated that the show would premiere on Disney+ on May 25, 2022, but in late March, it was pushed back two days to May 27.
“Obi-Wan Kenobi” picks up roughly ten years after the events of 2005’s “Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith,” and follows Obi-life Wan’s in exile on Tatooine. Obi-Wan is a wanted man after Order 66 decimated the Jed, especially by an Inquisitor named Reva Sevander (Moses Ingram). In addition, Hayden Christensen will reprise his role as Anakin Skywalker, who has been converted into Darth Vader by his last meeting with Obi-Wan; and Joel Edgerton and Bonnie Piesse will reprise their roles as Luke Skywalker’s uncle Owen and aunt Beru Lars, respectively, from the prequels. Rupert Friend, Indira Varma, Sung Kang, Kumail Nanjiani, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Simone Kessell, Benny Safdie, and Maya Erskine also star in the series.