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“Obi-Wan Kenobi” is premiering on Disney+ a few hours earlier than planned, the “Star Wars” show announced Thursday night.
West Coast viewers will be able to stream the first two episodes of the show, starring Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen, starting at 9 p.m. PT. Originally, they were set to become available at midnight.
The news was announced in a tweet from the official “Star Wars” account. “The time for @ObiWanKenobi has arrived… early,” the tweet reads. “Start streaming the first two episodes TONIGHT at 9 p.m. PT on @Disneyplus.”
‘OBI-WAN KENOBI’: A GUIDE TO THE NEW ‘STAR WARS’ SERIES
Earlier today at the Star Wars Celebration convention in Anaheim, Calif., “Star Wars” fans were surprised with a premiere screening of the show at 7 p.m. PT — and now viewers at home will be able to watch “Obi-Wan Kenobi” early as well.
The Disney+ series is the culmination of years of planning at Lucasfilm to revive McGregor’s performance as Obi-Wan from the “Star Wars” prequel trilogy. Initially, the actor was meant to star in a standalone feature film directed by Stephen Daldry (“The Hours”). After the box office failure of “Solo: A Star Wars Story” in 2018, however, Lucasfilm scrapped its standalone movies and refocused on creating shows for Disney+. The runaway success of “The Mandalorian” rekindled hope that McGregor would don Obi-Wan’s robe again for a streaming series.
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Ewan McGregor poses with Stormtroopers as he attends the “Obi-Wan Kenobi” photocall at the Corinthia Hotel London on May 12, 2022, in England.
(PKate Green/Getty Images)
The actor finally confirmed the news to great fanfare at the D23 Expo in August 2019, but a planned shoot in 2020 with “The Mandalorian” director Deborah Chow was delayed when the original head writer, Hossein Amini (“The Alienist”), left the production. After Joby Harold (“Army of the Dead”) was hired to take over, the six-episode series was delayed again due to the pandemic. Disney finally announced in February that the show would debut on Disney+ on May 25, 2022, and then in late March, pushed the release two days to May 27.
Set roughly 10 years after the events of 2005’s “Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith,” “Obi-Wan Kenobi” picks up with Obi-Wan’s life in exile on Tatooine. After Order 66 decimated the Jed, Obi-Wan is a hunted man, especially by an Inquisitor named Reva Sevander (Moses Ingram).
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Hayden Christensen attends the studio showcase panel at Star Wars Celebration for “Obi-Wan Kenobi” in Anaheim, California, on May 26, 2022.
(Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney)
Christensen is also reprising his performance from the prequels as Anakin Skywalker, now transformed by his last encounter with Obi-Wan into Darth Vader; and Joel Edgerton and Bonnie Piesse return as Luke Skywalker’s uncle Owen and aunt Beru Lars. The series co-stars Rupert Friend, Indira Varma, Sung Kang, Kumail Nanjiani, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Simone Kessell, Benny Safdie and Maya Erskine.
