Not having Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was a massive missed opportunity. Disney and Lucasfilm officially wrapped up the Skywalker Saga last year with the J.J. Abrams' directed and co-written movie. The filmmaker returned to the franchise after kicking off the sequel trilogy in 2015 via Star Wars: The Force Awakens following the departure of the original director, Colin Trevorrow.
Picking up a year after Rian Johnson's Star Wars: The Last Jedi, The Rise of Skywalker features the Resistance on a rebuilding phase after almost getting wiped out by the First Order. As Rey (Daisy Ridley) continued her training to become a Jedi under Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher), Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) assumed his position to be Supreme Leader Snoke's (Andy Serkis) successor. Aside from putting a focus on the existing key players in the sequel trilogy, Abrams also brought back Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid), who was revealed to be pulling the strings behind-the-scenes as the secret grandfather of Rey. After grappling with her origins and the death of Luke (Mark Hamill), Leia, and a redeemed Ben Solo, Rey decided to adopt the Skywalker last name, keeping the lineage.
Making The Rise of Skywalker was by no means easy; aside from the pressure to deliver a satisfying culminating film, it also had to rework its original narrative following Fisher's untimely death. Unfortunately, it wasn' the ideal Skywalker Saga capper that people wanted it to be as The Rise of Skywalker was met with a divisive response. Fans have various issues with it, but one of its biggest missed opportunities was its failure to incorporate Obi-Wan Kenobi into its narrative.
For a film that was supposed wrap-up the Skywalker family narrative, it's disappointing that The Rise of Skywalker didn't find it important to somehow have Obi-Wan factor in its narrative. The Force Awakens teased him and Jedi Master Yoda when the Skywalker family lightsaber first called to Rey, but unlike the latter who made an appearance as a Force ghost in The Last Jedi, he never had a proper appearance in the sequel trilogy.
Granted that he was among the Jedi who made voice cameos during Rey's final battle with Palpatine, but he deserves a part more significant than just being treated as one of the many Jedi cameos. He was a key figure in the Skywalker family's history starting by being Anakin Skywalker's Jedi Master and friend until he was corrupted by Darth Sidious to become Darth Vader. Even then, Obi-Wan made sure Anakin and Padmé Amidala's twins were safe, giving Leia to Bail Organa to be raised on Alderaan while Obi-Wan personally looked after Luke himself.
Obi-Wan devoted almost 20 years living a life in exile in Tatooine to make sure that Luke was safe; he was instrumental in informing him of his lineage and his destiny to be a Jedi — if it weren't for the Jedi Master, chances are that Luke would've stayed in the desert planet, never knowing his real origin story. Given all this, he surely deserved something more than being lumped with all the other Jedi who have, admittedly, done great things in the franchise, but have a significantly smaller personal connection with the Skywalkers. A brief appearance of Obi-Wan's Force ghost, perhaps with Luke's in Ahch-To during Rey's visit, would've done the trick.
At one point during the early days of conceptualizing the sequel trilogy, Rey was going to be a Kenobi, but that was ultimately changed although it's unclear why. Knowing where the scavenger-turned-Jedi ended up in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, it's curious how her overall trajectory could've panned out if Lucasfilm stuck with this idea — chances are that he'll be more prominent in the narrative than what's in canon now. In any case, fans can just look forward to the upcoming Kenobi prequel mini-series on Disney+.