All the Star Wars Characters You Need to Know Before Obi-Wan Kenobi

Well, duh. We’ve got a separate massive article on the titular character but the basics are this: years ago, Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi took a young Jedi named Anakin Skywalker as his Padawan. Many adventures later, Anakin Skywalker betrayed Obi-Wan and the Jedi Order, becoming Darth Vader. However, what Vader didn’t know was that his late wife, Padmé, had two children before her death: Luke and Leia. Obi-Wan, with the help of Yoda and Senator Bail Organa, hid the children, sending Leia with Organa to Alderaan, while he brought Luke to Tatooine.

About 20 years later, a pair of droids arrived on Tatooine calling a now elderly Obi-Wan into action to help Leia, and he recruited Luke for the task. Obi-Wan would eventually meet his end at the hands of Vader, becoming one with the Force.

This show takes place in between that, with a Luke who is about 10 years old.

You know him, you love him. It’s the Dark Lord of the Sith and apprentice to Emperor Palpatine, Darth Vader.

Before he become the second most evil man in the galaxy, Vader was the apprentice of Obi-Wan Kenobi. However, when he believed his wife, Padmé Amidala, was in danger, Anakin chose to embrace the Dark Side of the Force in an effort to save her. The effort failed, but the Dark Side took hold and he helped Palpatine destroy the Jedi Order.

Now, in the time of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Vader is still hunting Kenobi, one of the last surviving Jedi, and he’s employed the help of skilled beings called Inquisitors, to do the job. What’s an Inquisitor, you ask?

Formerly a member of the Jedi Order’s Temple Guard, the Grand Inquisitor turned to the Dark Side after the rise of the Empire. Under the tutelage of Darth Vader, he began training similarly Force-sensitive beings to hunt Jedi for Vader and the Emperor. He was first introduced in the animated show Star Wars Rebels, hunting down Jedis Kanan Jarrus and Ezra Bridger, before ultimately falling to Jarrus.

This, however, takes place before that. Obviously.

Under the Grand Inquisitor, each Inquisitor is given a number followed by a sibling identifier. We don’t know how the numbers are decided upon, but we know we’ll meet at least two in Obi-Wan Kenobi.

First up, and most importantly, is the Third Sister, played by Moses Ingram. This is the first time we’re meeting this character, also called Reva, in Star Wars, and she is a formidable, lightsaber-wielding force.

We first met the Fifth Brother in Star Wars Rebels where he and the Seventh Sister competed in hunting Ezra and Kanan. Here though, years earlier, he’s seen in live-action for the first time played by Fast and Furious star Sung Kang.

Owen Lars is a moisture farmer living in the deserts of Tatooine. He’s the son of Cliegg Lars, who years prior freed and married Shmi Skywalker, the mother of Anakin Skywalker. Shmi was later kidnapped and killed.

Because Owen was Anakin’s stepbrother, Obi-Wan chose to bring baby Luke to live with him and his wife, Beru. The pair then raised him into his late teens. At that point, once R2-D2 and C-3PO ended up on Tatooine, Owen and Beru were killed by Imperial Stormtroopers looking for the droids. In the original Star Wars film, Owen was played by the late Phil Brown and in Obi-Wan, he’s played by Joel Edgerton, reprising the role from the prequels.

The adopted mother of Luke Skywalker lives a humble life helping her husband, Owen, around the farm on Tatooine. In the original Star Wars film she was played by the late Shelagh Fraser but in the Star Wars prequels, as well as Obi-Wan Kenobi, she’s played by Bonnie Piesse.

Look. There are basically six movies about this guy as well as multiple shows, books, comics, everything. But for the purposes of Obi-Wan Kenobi, he’s a young child that Obi-Wan has sworn to protect at all costs. He believes, and ends up being sort of right, that Luke will eventually save the galaxy.

Considering she met her demise during The Clone Wars, years before the events of Obi-Wan Kenobi, it is unlikely that Mandalorian Princess Satine Kryze will appear on the show. But, she’s an important person in Obi-Wan’s past, so knowing about her could be beneficial.

It’s a complex relationship but the two met when they were young and Obi-Wan was still the apprentice to Qui-Gon Jinn. At that time they developed, but never acted on, feelings for each other. Those feelings came back years later when Obi-Wan saw her again as Mandalore figured out its role in the Clone Wars. Over the course of many new adventures they continued to have feelings for each other, until Kryze was murdered in front of Obi-Wan at the hands of Darth Maul.

Again, since Qui-Gon is Qui-Gone at the time of Obi-Wan Kenobi, we probably won’t see him, but it’s possible. Qui-Gon was a very powerful Jedi Master who took Obi-Wan as his apprentice and told Obi-Wan to do the same for a young Anakin Skywalker. He died at the hands of Darth Maul but became one with the Force and would, occasionally, speak to Kenobi that way.

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