The release date for Disney Plus’s Obi-Wan Kenobi is so close that I can feel its vibrations in the Force. I really cannot overstate how much I’ve been waiting for this moment—it’s all I’ve ever wanted since I first fell in love with the Prequel trilogy, despite its terrible visual effects and its horrible new characters and its midichlorians—I know, I know, it had its issues! But I was also a tween who was way too invested in the terrible Greek tragedy of it all.
Knowing that I will get to see Ewan McGregor’s return to his iconic role, and Hayden Christensen step back into Darth Vader’s armor fills me with joy. The fact that they’ve chosen to set this story in between the Prequel and Original Trilogies is so brilliant that I didn’t even dare to wish for it. Hearing the “Duel of the Fates” soundtrack in the trailer emotionally floored me. You get the idea.
So, as we all wait for May 27th, when the first episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi is set to release on Disney Plus, we can take this opportunity to freshen up our knowledge of one of the most iconic Jedi masters of the galaxy far, far away. Starting from his age—how old is Obi-Wan exactly?
The Age of the Actors
Looking at the timeline, we know Obi-Wan was young enough to still be a Padawan when Anakin first meets him on Tatooine and old enough to be an elderly man when he dies dueling Darth Vader on the first Death Star. You might say. Duh. But stay with me! I’m doing science!
Ewan McGregor himself was 27-28 when The Phantom Menace was released; 30-31 during Attack of the Clones; and 33-34 in Revenge of the Sith. And conversely, Sir Alec Guinness was 62-63 when he played older Ben Kenobi in the first Star Wars movie, A New Hope. He was 65-66 when he appeared as a Force Ghost in Empire Strikes Back and 68-69 in Return of the Jedi. But does Obi-Wan’s in-universe age match that of his actors?
The Canon’s Timeline
Events in the Star Wars universe are classified as either BBY, “Before the Battle of Yavin”, or ABY, “After the Battle of Yavin”—making the watershed moment of the history of the galaxy, the battle that resulted in the first big victory of the Rebel Alliance against the Galactic Empire (with the destruction of the first Death Star). So, let’s calculate Obi-Wan’s age according to these dates.
Wookieepedia says that Obi-Wan was born in 57 BBY and died, obviously, in 0 BBY — since his duel with Darth Vader takes place just a few weeks before the Battle of Yavin itself. So, he was fifty-seven years old when he died, which means that Sir Alec Guinness was almost a decade too old to be playing him and his age is actually much closer to Ewan McGregor’s current age—since the actor is in his fifties.
And since he passed from a Padawan to a full Jedi Knight in 37 BBY, after he defeated Darth Maul in a duel, that means that he was twenty when he and Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn arrived on Tatooine and met a little boy who was going to absolutely wreck the entire galaxy, bringing the Jedi Order down with him. Order 66 was executed in 32 BBY, so Obi-Wan was twenty-five when he dueled his former pupil on Mustafar, saw Padmé die of hEaRtBrEaK—I’m sorry, but that motivation still enrages me after all these years—and made sure that Luke was delivered safely into the arms of his Skywalker uncle and aunt on Tatooine.
So, funnily enough, Ewan McGregor was also too old to be playing young Obi-Wan Kenobi in the prequel trilogy, just like Sir Alec Guinness was too old to be playing him in the original one.
Complicating it all is that the Obi-Wan Kenobi trailer shows Luke as a child—meaning that only a handful of years have passed (even though the last movie was in 2005) and so, obviously, the actor has aged while Obi-Wan himself should be around thirty years old, rather than the nearly sixty-year-old man he will be by the time Luke is spurred into action by Leia’s message recorded on R2-D2’s memory.
But whatever—he looks great, and canonical ages are more guidelines than actual rules. Here’s looking at you, every 30-year-old who has played a high schooler on a YA show.
(via: Wookieepedia; image: Disney)
