Warning! Spoilers ahead for Obi-Wan Kenobi.
The latest Star Wars series streaming on Disney+, Obi-Wan Kenobi, is a dream come true for prequel fans. The series stars Ewan McGregor reprising his role as Obi-Wan, Hayden Christensen reprising his role as Darth Vader, and director Deborah Chow relishes every opportunity to follow up on the familiar events of the prequel trilogy (and set up the familiar events of the original trilogy).
From the Order 66 flashbacks to the veiled Padmé reference to the casting of Temuera Morrison as a grizzled Clone Wars veteran, there are a bunch of great nods to the Star Wars prequels in Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Order 66
In the opening scene of Obi-Wan Kenobi, director Deborah Chow recreated the youngling massacre at the Jedi Temple in an intense single-take tracking shot. A Jedi Master tries to lead a class of younglings out of the temple as Anakin and his clone troopers slaughter everybody in the building.
These Order 66 flashbacks have recurred throughout the series, especially after it was revealed that Reva was a Jedi youngling herself and witnessed the murders of her classmates at Vader’s hands.
Hayden Christensen
When the prequel movies hit theaters, Hayden Christensen was unfairly lambasted for his turn as Anakin Skywalker. In the years since, his performance has been reappraised by a cult audience. Obi-Wan Kenobi has brought the actor back in his familiar role as Darth Vader.
Christensen’s face has only been seen briefly in the series, in prequel-era flashbacks and Obi-Wan’s visions and brief glimpses of Vader soaking in a bacta tank, but it’s just fun to have him back in the Star Wars fold.
The A99 Aquata Breather
In the fourth episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi, when Obi-Wan embarks on yet another Leia rescue mission, he infiltrates the Imperial facility where she’s being held from an undersea vantage point. During this swim, Kenobi uses an A99 aquata breather to breathe underwater.
Obi-Wan previously used this high-tech breathing device when he swam to the Gungans’ underwater city with Qui-Gon and Jar Jar in The Phantom Menace, and later when he escaped from the clones’ wrath during the Great Jedi Purge on Utapau.
Obi-Wan Tries To Communicate With Qui-Gon’s Force Ghost
In the Star Wars canon, Qui-Gon Jinn is the first Jedi to figure out how to achieve immortal life as a Force ghost. In the first couple of episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Obi-Wan desperately sought advice from his late master, but unfortunately to no avail.
This calls back to the end of Revenge of the Sith. When Yoda and Obi-Wan were about to go into exile, Yoda told Obi-Wan that he’d spoken to Qui-Gon’s ghost and urged him to try to do the same.
So Uncivilized
In the original trilogy, Obi-Wan dismissed blasters as “clumsy” and “random,” and told Luke that a lightsaber is “an elegant weapon for a more civilized age.” In Revenge of the Sith, after losing his lightsaber and resorting to using a blaster to kill General Grievous, Obi-Wan tosses the gun aside and quips, “So uncivilized.”
At the beginning of Obi-Wan Kenobi’s run, when he was still trying to hide his Jedi identity, Obi-Wan couldn’t fight with his elegant lightsaber, so he had to use his fists and an uncivilized blaster.
Anakin And Obi-Wan’s Training Flashback
Christensen finally got to perform a whole scene with his face showing in the fifth episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Throughout the episode, there’s a recurring flashback to one of Obi-Wan’s training sessions with Anakin on Coruscant, circa Attack of the Clones.
These training scenes exemplify the differences between the incorruptible Obi-Wan and his soon-to-be-corrupted padawan. During their playfight, Anakin dismisses the notion of mercy.
Mustafar
Obi-Wan Kenobi takes Star Wars fans back to one of the most visually stunning planets from the prequel trilogy. The volcanic environments of Mustafar created the perfect backdrop for the explosive emotions of Obi-Wan’s climactic showdown with Anakin.
After Anakin completed his transformation into Darth Vader on Mustafar, he constructed a castle there where he could go to get away from it all. Vader’s castle has featured heavily in Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Temuera Morrison As A Clone Wars Veteran
No actor has played more separate roles in the Star Wars universe than Temuera Morrison. He played bounty hunter Jango Fett (and eventually his son, Boba) and also played hundreds of thousands of Fett clones.
In the second episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi, when he visits Daiyu, Obi-Wan bumps into a grizzled Clone Wars veteran, played by Morrison, begging for credits on the street.
What Have You Become?
After finding out that Anakin is still alive, based on his visions, Obi-Wan is expecting to see his former apprentice fully healed. So, he’s horrified to see the black-clad cyborg that he transformed into after their last duel on Mustafar.
When he first sees Vader in all his cybernetic glory, an unnerved Obi-Wan asks, “What have you become?” Vader snaps back, “I am what you made me.”
Leia Reminds Obi-Wan Of Padmé
When Obi-Wan is first getting to know Leia, he stops in his tracks and tells her she reminds him of somebody he knows. Immediately, the audience assumes he’s talking about his fallen padawan. But when Leia asks if this person was a Jedi, Obi-Wan says, “She was a leader.”
Thanks to the backlash to the prequels, Luke and Leia’s late mother Padmé Amidala has never gotten the love she deserves. In Obi-Wan Kenobi, she finally gets a touching tribute: “She was fearless, too, and stubborn.”