Obi-Wan Kenobi Episodes Guide: The Season Explained, Part by Part

Obi-Wan Kenobi episodes, the full season explained

Obi-Wan Kenobi is a Star Wars series produced by Lucasfilm for Disney+. Ewan McGregor returns as the title character, a Jedi Master in hiding on Tatooine, ten years after the Jedi Order was purged at the end of Revenge of the Sith (2005). The setup is a rescue story. Princess Leia, a child living on Alderaan, is kidnapped by people working for the Empire's Inquisitors, and Kenobi comes out of exile to bring her back. That pulls him into conflict with his former apprentice Anakin Skywalker, now the Sith known as Darth Vader, played again by Hayden Christensen.

The count is short. There are six Obi-Wan Kenobi episodes, one season, titled Part I through Part VI. The first two parts were released together on May 27, 2022 (they went live on the evening of May 26 in Pacific time), and the other four followed weekly: Part III on June 1, Part IV on June 8, Part V on June 15 and Part VI on June 22. Episodes run between 36 and 53 minutes, so the whole series is under five hours. Dates and counts follow the Wikipedia article on the series, checked in October 2026.

The series did not start as television. It began as a spin-off film written by Hossein Amini and set to be directed by Stephen Daldry, and was reworked into a limited series. McGregor was confirmed in August 2019, and Deborah Chow was hired a month later to direct all of the episodes. In April 2020 Joby Harold was brought in to rewrite the scripts and run the show. Amini and Stuart Beattie still hold writing credits on the first three episodes and the finale, per the Wikipedia article. Filming took place in Los Angeles using StageCraft, the video-wall technology, and Natalie Holt composed the score. John Williams wrote a new main theme for Kenobi.

Around McGregor, the cast brings back several prequel-era names: Joel Edgerton, Bonnie Piesse, Jimmy Smits and Ian McDiarmid reprise their roles, and Vivien Lyra Blair plays the young Leia. New to the franchise are Moses Ingram as the Inquisitor Reva, Rupert Friend as the Grand Inquisitor, Kumail Nanjiani as the con man Haja Estree, Indira Varma as Tala Durith and O'Shea Jackson Jr. as Roken.

The six Obi-Wan Kenobi episodes fall into three pairs, and the release schedule hints at the same split. Parts I and II go together as the setup: Tatooine, the kidnapping and the first trip off-world. Parts III and IV are the middle, moving through Mapuzo, Jabiim and Nur as Kenobi gathers allies and Leia is held. Parts V and VI are the last act. Watching the first pair in one sitting is the natural way in, since Disney+ released them together.

Executive producers on the series include Deborah Chow, Ewan McGregor, Kathleen Kennedy, Michelle Rejwan and Joby Harold. Lucasfilm produced it for Disney+, and each part runs between 36 and 53 minutes. Anyone moving on from this series to the other shows and films can start from the Star Wars guide and the franchise guides index.

Where it sits matters to most readers. The series takes place between Revenge of the Sith and the original 1977 film, so the characters it follows are the ones already established on either side. Readers new to the franchise can find the rest of the setting in Rough Cut Review's Star Wars guide. Viewers who have seen Revenge of the Sith will get the most from the first episode; those who have not will still follow the plot, since the series states who everyone is and what happened to the Jedi early on.

Behind the scenes, the writing was shared. Joby Harold is credited on every part, and Hossein Amini and Stuart Beattie hold credits on the first three parts and the finale, with Hannah Friedman and Andrew Stanton credited on others. According to the Wikipedia article, Chow described the story as changing significantly after Harold was hired. Harold has said he wanted to explore what happened between McGregor's version of Kenobi and the older Kenobi played by Alec Guinness in the original trilogy, with the Empire rising and surviving Jedi on the run.

Viewing details are simple. The series is on Disney+, and a content warning was added to Parts I, V and VI because of scenes depicting violence against children during Order 66. The Inquisitors are the series' main antagonists besides Vader, and the cast includes Rupert Friend as the Grand Inquisitor, Sung Kang as the Fifth Brother and Moses Ingram as Reva. Parts run in order and none stands alone. Anyone planning an evening around the Obi-Wan Kenobi episodes can fit two parts into a normal night.

Obi-Wan Kenobi was conceived as a limited series, and its director described it as one story with a beginning, middle and end. That is the reason this guide treats the six parts as a single season. A companion documentary special, Obi-Wan Kenobi: A Jedi's Return, was released on September 8, 2022, and a Marvel Comics miniseries by Jody Houser adapting the show began in September 2023.

The season-by-season guide

Because the season is a single block of six, each section below covers one part, with its release date and what it sets up. None describes how the story ends. Deborah Chow directed every part, so there are no directors to track from one entry to the next.