Warning: Spoilers for Obi-Wan Kenobi episode 3!
The third episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi explores uncharted territory for the canon version of its titular hero and describes his biological family members. Obi-Wan, as with most Star Wars prequel-era Jedi, joined the Jedi Order as an infant and trained towards Knighthood throughout his formative years. As such, Kenobi wouldn’t have many memories of his birth family, but he holds onto a few notable details, which he recalls in the Obi-Wan series, referencing his mother, father, and brother. Interestingly, Obi-Wan was going to be revealed as the brother of Luke’s Uncle Owen, and this detail made it into one Legends-era book but was eventually reconciled with the rest of the Star Wars franchise in later works.
One of the old Jedi Order’s key flaws is its disconnection from the common people of the galaxy it’s sworn to protect. From an almost literal ivory tower in the Galactic Republic’s capital world of Coruscant, the Jedi Order, unfortunately, was part of a corrupt system that made the Sith Order’s fascist coup easier for its Dark Lords. In the Legends continuity, Luke Skywalker’s New Jedi Order corrected the flaws of its predecessor, keeping a degree of distance from political entities and allowing its Knights to both join voluntarily at any age and live normal lives alongside their service. Luke, having lived a relatively normal life as a farmer before becoming a Jedi, understood the merits of life in addition to Jedi Knighthood.
Obi-Wan, who never truly knew his parents, connects with a young Princess Leia over a similar sentiment in “Part III” of the Obi-Wan Kenobi series. Leia never knew her parents, as her mother died in childbirth and her father became a monstrous Sith Lord, but Obi-Wan can’t tell her the truth about her parentage (although he does deny that he’s her real father). Obi-Wan describes fleeting memories of his parents and brother, but also described the Jedi Order as his family, highlighting the tragedy of his former padawan’s actions upon becoming Darth Vader. Obi-Wan makes a few references to his parents in Legends-era material, but his brother is as ambiguous in Legends as he is in canon, with Kenobi mistaking Owen Lars for his possible brother at one point.
Who Were Obi-Wan Kenobi's Parents?
Although George Lucas named Obi-Wan’s homeworld “Stewjon” as a joke during an interview with Jon Stewart, several canon and Legends sources as well as Lucasfilm management, such as Leland Chee, list Stewjon as Kenobi’s home in an official capacity, though other sources suggest that Kenobi might have been born on Coruscant before Lucas’ interview. Kenobi’s parents are rarely described directly, with the 1999 book Jedi Apprentice: The Hidden Past including references to them via flashbacks and visions in the Force. In the canon Obi-Wan series, Obi-Wan reminisces on his father’s hands and his mother’s shawl, keeping his memories of his parents in canon comparably vague to those in Legends.
Who Was Obi-Wan Kenobi's Brother
Obi-Wan also mentions a baby in his fleeting memories of his biological family, who he suspects might have been his younger brother. This is similar to the ambiguous existence of Kenobi’s brother in the Legends universe. While Obi-Wan had flashbacks and visions of a possible brother through the Force, it wasn’t clear if they were of the past or future. What was clear was that Kenobi was seeing visions of someone named “Owen,” which ties into unused plans for Return of the Jedi, which would have revealed Obi-Wan and Owen Lars to be brothers, an idea that was repurposed in later Legends works.
Uncle Owen Was Obi-Wan's Brother In Return of the Jedi's Novelization
Although Obi-Wan doesn’t mention Owen Lars in Return of the Jedi, he does describe him as his brother in the film’s novelization, which is part of the Legends universe. Legends notably takes continuity quite seriously (arguably more than the canon timeline), so this line was reconciled with the rest of Legends, where Obi-Wan and Owen are not related. The story Lone Wolf: A Tale of Obi-Wan and Luke keeps the idea of Obi-Wan and Owen and integrates it into Legends, with Kenobi discovering, upon trusting Owen and Beru Lars with Luke Skywalker, that the brother he’d seen in visions was Owen Lars, who Kenobi felt a kinship with as a fellow guardian of Luke. While this likely isn’t the case for canon’s Ben Kenobi, his mention of a potential brother in the Obi-Wan Kenobi series is an enjoyable nod to the Return of the Jedi and Legends-era content.
New episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi release Wednesdays on Disney+.