(Image credit: Disney)

New Obi-Wan Kenobi images reveal an unexpected Star Wars villain

These are the images you’ve been looking for

by · TechRadar

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Star Wars fans, rejoice! We’ve finally got our first proper look at Disney’s Obi-Wan Kenobi series on Disney Plus – and it seems like we’ll be seeing a whole new side to the fan-favorite Jedi master.

Official images from the upcoming show, released as part of an exclusive Entertainment Weekly (EW) feature, reveal its main antagonist, new planets and a more rough-and-ready look for Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan. 

We now know, for instance, that The Queen’s Gambit’s Moses Ingram will be facing off against the titular hero as the force-sensitive Inquisitor Reva, described by showrunners as a “ruthlessly ambitious” villain on a mission to “seek out Jedi-in-hiding for the Empire.”

Though we've not seen Inquisitor Reva in the on-screen Star Wars universe before, she looks to be from the same guild of antagonists hunting Cal Kestis in the 2019 video game, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (which is also set in the years between Episodes III and IV).

Other images tease the previously unseen planet of Daiyu, which "sort of has a Hong Kong feel to it,” according to writer Joby Harold. "It's got a graffiti-ridden nightlife, and is kind of edgy. It's just got a different lane and a different feeling," he adds in the short synopsis accompanying each photo. 

More images reveal Joel Edgerton’s return as Uncle Owen – the Tatooine-dwelling farmer Obi-Wan leaves to care for a newborn Luke Skywalker at the end of Episode III – as well as Kenobi’s new digs in an isolated cave.

Check out all seven images in the slideshow below: 

(Image credit: Matt Kennedy / Lucasfilm Ltd)
(Image credit: Matt Kennedy / Lucasfilm Ltd)
(Image credit: Matt Kennedy / Lucasfilm Ltd)
(Image credit: Matt Kennedy / Lucasfilm Ltd)
(Image credit: Matt Kennedy / Lucasfilm Ltd)
(Image credit: Matt Kennedy / Lucasfilm Ltd)
(Image credit: Matt Kennedy / Lucasfilm Ltd)

A six-episode Disney Plus series set 10 years after the events of Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Obi-Wan Kenobi will follow the master Jedi as he fights to survive against the rise of the new Galactic Empire, while also watching over a young Luke on Tatooine (and, presumably, Leia on Alderaan) – talk about multitasking…

We’ll see Obi-Wan’s former apprentice, Anakin Skywalker (Luke’s father), return to the fray, too, having made the transition to iconic Sith Lord Darth Vader by the time the series begins. We know Hayden Christensen will be reprising his role from the Star Wars prequels, so it’ll be interesting to see whether his tolerance for sand has changed in the intervening years.

A release date for the series has also been set – Obi-Wan will land on Disney Plus on May 25, exactly 45 years on from the original release of Star Wars Episode IV.

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That means we’ll see Obi-Wan in action before both The Bad Batch season 2 and the Cassian Andor Rogue One prequel series land on the streamer, which begs the question – when will Disney release a trailer for the show? We’ve tried to answer that question ourselves, but here’s hoping McGregor’s EW appearance finally gets the ball rolling.  

Axel Metz

Axel is a London-based staff writer at TechRadar, reporting on everything from the latest Tesla models to newest movies as part of the site's daily news output. Having previously written for publications including Esquire and FourFourTwo, Axel is well-versed in the applications of technology beyond the desktop, and a degree in English Literature means he can occasionally be spotted slipping Hemingway quotes into stories about electric sports cars.