With the new Obi-Wan Kenobi series now available for streaming on Disney+, Star Wars is back on the forefront with interest at an all-time high. Why is that such the case even when there are other highly rated Star Wars series including The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett?
Well, the series ties in directly to the original trilogy, much closer compared to what the prequel trilogy did, whereby Obi-Wan is now living in exile on Tatooine (pretty much on his way to becoming the old hermit Ben Kenobi who was played by Alec Guinness in A New Hope), watching over a young Luke Skywalker.
The series also sees the return of Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader, a role he starred as in the 2nd and 3rd films of the prequel trilogy. The Darth Vader comic books published by Marvel captured the angst, pain and the darkness of Anakin Skywalker’s transformation into Darth Vader, as well as his drive to weed out the Jedi, so there’s no doubt folks are excited to see what Hayden Christensen can bring to the table to a character that he embodied for two movies with what critics back then would deemed as “mixed results”.
But two decades after the first prequel movie was launched, that particular trilogy is now being seen, and appreciated by new generations of Star Wars fans. For me, the prequel trilogy was the first set of Star Wars movies that I’ve actually watched in a movie theater. While Episode 1 introduced high-fangled concepts like midi-chlorian counts and Episode II saw the debut of the clone army, Episode III proved the best of the lot.
There were so many moments in the film, starting with the amazing space battle above Coruscant, Obi-Wan’s fight with General Grevious, Palpatine going John Wick with a lightsaber on a bunch of Jedi ending with Anakin turning Sith and Mace Windu getting thrown out of a high-rise, Order 66 (OMG), younglings (dead), the rise of the Emperor, the limb-chopping fight at Mustafar and the parallel transformation of Anakin into Darth Vader, along with the birth of his children (and death of his wife).
There’s no way that Episode 3 does not stand as one of the best films out of the three trilogies put together. And to add to that, the movie had an excellent novelization by Matthew Stover which added valuable context to the film. I’ve even received the ARC-170 starfighter LEGO set for Christmas; the ship made it’s debut in Episode 3.
Like many, I’m excited to watch the new Star Wars series, but I’m one who prefers to binge through a complete set of episodes, rather wait week after week for new episodes to show up. In the meantime, it’s back to re-watching Episode 3 on Disney+!
