Wednesday, March 9, 2022 will go down as a monumental day in history. This day marks the return of everyone’s favorite Space Jesus to the “Star Wars” franchise: Obi-Wan Kenobi. The first teaser trailer for the upcoming Disney+ series “Obi-Wan Kenobi” (appropriately titled after the iconic Jedi Master) released in the middle of the day on March 9, and I immediately sat down and watched it. Long story short, it blew my mind.

If I’m being honest, I’ve not been very invested in Star Wars recently. I came away from “The Book of Boba Fett” feeling very let down, even after the tidal wave of cameos and callbacks from other shows. I knew that “Obi-Wan Kenobi” was on the horizon and I was super excited for it, but I had been feeling very nervous that Lucasfilm would not only fail to properly bring back one of my favorite characters, but do it in a lazy way. Needless to say, I was not disappointed. In the next couple of paragraphs I will be nerding out, and explaining why the “Obi-Wan Kenobi” trailer made me super excited for the show’s upcoming release.

First and foremost, I cannot write about Obi-Wan Kenobi without acknowledging the man, the myth, the legend: Ewan McGregor. I am very happy to see McGregor back in the franchise, especially because he’s excited to be back as well. He last played the role of Kenobi in 2005, in “Revenge of the Sith”, the last of the prequel trilogy. In a recent appearance on The Empire Film podcast, McGregor talked about the increased appreciation for the prequel trilogy since the movies originally released, as well as how his eagerness to return to the Star Wars franchise has grown over the years.

“All these years later, I’m really aware of what our films meant to the generation they were made for, the children of that time,” McGregor said. “I’m more excited about [doing “Obi-Wan Kenobi”] than I was doing the second and third [movies] that we did before. It’s been long enough since I played [Obi-Wan.]”

I really hope that McGregor knows that Star Wars fans are just as happy to have him back in the franchise as he is to be back — and he should be happy. McGregor mentioned in a different interview that he was intrigued by playing a different version of Obi-Wan (closer to Alec Guinness’ interpretation in the original trilogy) and his appearance in the trailer alone proved to me that McGregor is not phoning this in for money––he has a legitimate love for playing this character. He looks amazing back in character, too. Everyone should go check out the recent Entertainment Weekly cover with McGregor on it; go right now and look it up. 

Don’t worry, I’ll wait.

Okay cool, you’re back. What’d you think? He looks cool, right? Yeah, he does.

Anyway, the second reason why I loved the “Obi-Wan Kenobi” trailer is the callbacks it made to other Star Wars television shows. I know earlier I was hesitant to praise the cameos in “Book of Boba Fett”, but for “Obi-Wan Kenobi” I’m cautiously optimistic. In the trailer, we saw many notable characters, including Owen and Beru Lars, and even Luke Skywalker. We also saw the reappearance of the Inquisitors, and their leader, the Grand Inquisitor. Admittedly, I have a soft spot for these villains; they were the main antagonists in “Star Wars Rebels”, my all-time favorite Star Wars show (it’s a hot take, I know). The Inquisitors do look a little funny in live-action, but their goal of hunting down Kenobi will make for a very interesting plot over six episodes. The only other callback I need is McGregor saying his classic line: “Hello there.”

Finally, the third (and biggest) reason the trailer got me excited for “Obi-Wan Kenobi” was two audio clips. First: the single-greatest piece of Star Wars music ever created, “Duel of the Fates” by the GOAT, John Williams. The instant that song started playing, I had to pause the trailer, stand up and walk around the room to recover before continuing. Imagine my surprise at the second clip, the unmistakable sound of Darth Vader’s breathing, right at the end of the trailer. We know Hayden Christenson is confirmed to appear in “Obi-Wan Kenobi” as both Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader, but the sound of Vader left me wondering: are we going to get another lightsaber duel between Vader and Kenobi? I can only hope.

So, on May 25, I can tell you exactly what my plan is for that day. Wake up, avoid spoilers on TikTok like my life depends on it, watch “Obi-Wan Kenobi” with my dad when he comes back from work, and then die happy, because the world has received another appearance from Obi-Wan.

Just kidding, I won’t actually die. If I did, I wouldn’t get to watch the other five episodes.