Obi-Wan Kenobi Star Wars: Who He Is and Who Plays Him

Obi-Wan Kenobi is a Jedi who begins as Qui-Gon Jinn's apprentice, trains Anakin Skywalker and later guides Luke Skywalker. He is credited as Obi-Wan "Ben" Kenobi in Star Wars (1977), Obi-Wan Kenobi in The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Ben 'Obi-Wan' Kenobi in Return of the Jedi (1983). Alec Guinness plays him in all three. George Lucas directed the first, Irvin Kershner the second and Richard Marquand the third.

The actor depends on the stage of his life that a film shows. Ewan McGregor plays the younger Obi-Wan in the prequels: The Phantom Menace (1999), Attack of the Clones (2002) and Revenge of the Sith (2005), each directed by George Lucas. So, if you are asking who plays Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars episode 1, the answer is McGregor, and for episode 4 (Star Wars (1977)) it is Guinness. James Arnold Taylor voices Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008), directed by Dave Filoni, where the credit reads "Obi-Wan Kenobi / 4A-7 / Medical Droid (voice)".

The credits put him in two more films, which brings his total to nine: The Force Awakens (2015) and The Rise of Skywalker (2019). In both he is credited further down the cast list, under the voice credits "Obi-Wan Kenobi (voice)" and "Obi-Wan Kenobi (voice) (uncredited)" among his credited names.

Obi-Wan first appears in release order in Star Wars (1977), but his story begins chronologically in The Phantom Menace. There he and Qui-Gon are sent to settle the Trade Federation blockade of Naboo, while in the 1977 film he is the hermit on Tatooine for whom Princess Leia's message is meant. None of the nine film titles is named for him, so the Obi-Wan Kenobi movie most people have in mind is any one of them. To place them, see Star Wars movies in order and the Star Wars timeline, because release order and chronological order run in different directions for this character.

Obi-Wan Kenobi's arc runs from Qui-Gon Jinn's apprentice in The Phantom Menace to the Jedi who trains Anakin, loses him on Mustafar, and guides Luke Skywalker until his death in Star Wars (1977). It is easiest to follow in chronological order. In The Phantom Menace he flees the blockade with Qui-Gon, helps rescue Queen Amidala, and watches Qui-Gon bet on the enslaved boy Anakin Skywalker in a podrace on Tatooine. After Darth Maul kills Qui-Gon in Theed, Obi-Wan defeats Maul and, honoring Qui-Gon's dying wish, agrees to take Anakin as his student.

Attack of the Clones begins ten years after the events on Naboo, with Obi-Wan assigned to guard Senator Padmé Amidala beside Anakin. He catches her would-be assassin, follows clues to the ocean planet Kamino, where a clone army is being grown for the Republic, and chases Jango Fett to Geonosis. There he is captured, condemned to an arena with Anakin and Padmé, and later wounded by Count Dooku. The next appearance in chronological order is The Clone Wars (2008), in which he and Anakin fight droid armies on Christophsis just before Ahsoka Tano is assigned to Anakin as his apprentice.

Revenge of the Sith opens after three years of war, with Obi-Wan and Anakin rescuing Chancellor Palpatine from General Grievous. Obi-Wan tracks Grievous to Utapau and destroys him, then follows Padmé to Mustafar, where he fights Anakin in a long duel across the volcanic planet and leaves him horribly burned. He and Yoda are among the surviving Jedi who go into hiding, and Obi-Wan carries baby Luke to Tatooine, where Luke is placed with Owen Lars under his watch.

In Star Wars (1977) he meets the grown Luke, tells him about the Force and his father, and travels with him, the droids R2-D2 and C-3PO, and the smuggler Han Solo and his partner Chewbacca. He also disables the Death Star's tractor beam so the others can escape. The Empire Strikes Back brings him back as a vision that guides Luke toward Yoda on Dagobah, and Return of the Jedi places him among the Force spirits watching over Luke's friends. The two remaining films, The Force Awakens (2015) and The Rise of Skywalker (2019), also carry Obi-Wan Kenobi credits, placed further down their cast lists.

The release order changes how the arc reads. Audiences in 1977 met Obi-Wan as an old hermit, and the 1999 film arrived 22 years later to show the same man as Qui-Gon's junior partner. Each prequel gives him a different job: a student in The Phantom Menace, an investigator in Attack of the Clones, who follows the assassin's trail to Kamino, and a field commander in Revenge of the Sith, who is sent after Grievous while Anakin stays close to Palpatine. In every case the film leaves him out of the political center of the story. The Jedi Council asks Anakin, not Obi-Wan, to spy on the Chancellor, and that gap is where the arc turns.

Obi-Wan's closest ally in the films is Anakin Skywalker until Revenge of the Sith, and afterwards Yoda and Luke Skywalker. The relationship with Anakin changes hands between actors: Jake Lloyd plays the boy in The Phantom Menace, Hayden Christensen plays him in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, and Sebastian Shaw plays Anakin Skywalker in Return of the Jedi. Obi-Wan is the constant, and the pairing is built in stages. Qui-Gon wins the boy's freedom, Obi-Wan takes him on as a student, the two guard Padmé Amidala together, and in Revenge of the Sith they rescue Palpatine side by side before the duel on Mustafar. In The Clone Wars (2008) they fight on Christophsis as partners before Ahsoka Tano is assigned to Anakin.

Qui-Gon Jinn, played by Liam Neeson, is the teacher whose death in The Phantom Menace obliges Obi-Wan to take a student. Natalie Portman's Padmé Amidala is a charge in Attack of the Clones and, in Revenge of the Sith, the reason Obi-Wan travels to Mustafar. Yoda, voiced by Frank Oz in the films, stands with him as a surviving Jedi after the Order falls, and Obi-Wan is later joined by Luke as the pupil he guides. See the profiles of Yoda, Anakin's later self Darth Vader and Padmé Amidala.

The link to Luke begins at the end of Revenge of the Sith, when Luke is placed with Owen Lars on Tatooine under Obi-Wan's watch. Leia Organa is tied to him by her message, hidden in R2-D2 in Star Wars (1977), which is meant for the hermit Obi-Wan Kenobi. Bail Organa takes Leia to Alderaan in Revenge of the Sith, so the two children of Padmé are separated by the same decision. Profiles: Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa.

His enemies track his career. Darth Maul, Sidious's apprentice, kills Qui-Gon and is beaten by Obi-Wan in The Phantom Menace. Count Dooku, played by Christopher Lee, wounds him in Attack of the Clones. General Grievous falls to him on Utapau. Palpatine, played by Ian McDiarmid, is the Sith Lord behind all of it, and Palpatine's profile covers that side. The sharpest pairing is Anakin and Darth Vader, since the same man is Obi-Wan's student on Mustafar and his opponent on the Death Star.

Darth Vader strikes Obi-Wan Kenobi down in their duel on the Death Star in Star Wars (1977), which lets Luke, Leia, Han Solo and Chewbacca escape. Obi-Wan has just disabled the tractor beam, and in the duel he lets himself be struck down so the others can get away. Luke later fires his torpedoes into the exhaust port while trusting the Force and Obi-Wan's voice, and the Death Star explodes.

The death is not the end of the character on screen. In The Empire Strikes Back, Obi-Wan appears as a vision that guides Luke to the swamp world Dagobah to find Yoda, and he is among those who advise Luke against breaking off his training to rescue his friends. In Return of the Jedi, Luke sees the Force spirits of Obi-Wan, Yoda and the redeemed Anakin Skywalker watching over his friends at the end. The Force Awakens (2015) and The Rise of Skywalker (2019) both carry Obi-Wan Kenobi credits, placed further down their cast lists.

The order of events matters here. Obi-Wan's fall to Vader in 1977 is the death of the master by the former student, which Revenge of the Sith sets up by leaving Anakin burned on Mustafar and rebuilt in black armor. Viewers who watch in chronological order see the Mustafar duel first, so the Death Star fight lands as a second meeting. Viewers in release order see the Death Star fight first, and the Mustafar duel arrives 28 years later as an explanation.

The films give no age for Obi-Wan Kenobi at his death.

Obi-Wan Kenobi's best moments are the Mustafar duel in Revenge of the Sith, the Death Star sacrifice in Star Wars (1977), the fight with Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace and the Kamino investigation in Attack of the Clones. This ranking is opinion, with the facts behind each choice.

The Mustafar duel comes first for me, because it is the only scene where his two main relationships collide. It follows a long duel across a volcanic planet and ends with Anakin horribly burned, and the film gives Obi-Wan no victory to enjoy. The Death Star sacrifice is second. He disables the tractor beam, faces Vader, and lets himself be struck down so the others can escape, and the plot depends on that choice: without it the rebels never study the plans and find the weakness.

Third is the Maul fight in Theed, where Obi-Wan defeats Maul after Qui-Gon dies and then honors Qui-Gon's dying wish by taking Anakin as his student. The scene also sets the pattern for the rest of the saga, because every later film builds on the promise made there. The Kamino investigation is fourth. It is a quieter piece of detective work, in which he follows clues about the assassin to the ocean planet and finds a clone army being grown for the Republic. It shows him as an investigator rather than a duelist, which is a side of the character that the other three scenes leave out.

One scene that falls just outside the list is the vision in The Empire Strikes Back that sends Luke to Yoda. It is brief, but it establishes that the character survives death in the story, which is why the Force spirit at the end of Return of the Jedi reads as a payoff and not a surprise.