Star Wars Can Finally Tell a Part of Obi-Wan’s Story Only Hinted at in Clone Wars

This article contains spoilers for Star Wars: The Clone Wars

A new Star Wars comic series announced at NYCC 2024 is packed with so much potential, especially if you’re a fan of Prequel-Era Obi-Wan Kenobi stories. Titled Star Wars: Jedi Knights, this series written by Marc Guggenheim and drawn by Madibek Musabekov is set before The Phantom Menace and focuses on a large cast of fan-favorite characters, including Qui-Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda, Count Dooku, and Mace Windu. Each issue of Star Wars: Jedi Knights will follow a different Jedi duo on a mission across the galaxy, but there will be an overarching threat that binds these stories together.

This is of course rich, unexplored territory in the current canon of Star Wars, especially as it concerns Obi-Wan’s time as a padawan learner. As Prequel fans know, we don’t get to see Obi-Wan as a padawan for long in the Prequels. After Qui-Gin is killed by Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace, Obi-Wan ascends the ranks of the Order and becomes a master himself by Revenge of the Sith. Most things we know about his time with Qui-Gon come from stories he tells later on. One story in particular would make perfect sense to tell during the time period that the new Jedi Knights comic is exploring—the story of when he first met Duchess Satine Kryze and served as her protector.

In Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Obi-Wan briefly talks about the time he spent with the Duchess before the events of the show when he was still Qui-Gon’s padawan. According to Obi-Wan, he and Qui-Gon spent a year with Satine on Mandalore during the Mandalorian Civil War, protecting her from “insurgents who had threatened her world.” They were always on the run, fleeing from bounty hunters and never quite sure what the next day would bring.

During their reunion in The Clone Wars, when Death Watch threatens Satine and her government, we learn that Obi-Wan and Satine came to love each other dearly during their year together—so much so that Obi-Wan tells her that he would have left the Jedi Order for her if she asked him to. But instead, Obi-Wan returned to the Order with his master and Satine went on to rebuild and rule Mandalore. There is clearly still romantic tension and sparks between them when they reconnect on The Clone Wars, but unfortunately Satine dies before the two can reconsider a future together.

This revelation about Obi-Wan’s past paints such a compelling picture of the character and what he gave up to be the legendary Jedi we know him to be. It reminds us that no matter how hard they try to overcome their emotions and control them, that Jedi still feel deeply. And it shows us that Obi-Wan and Anakin really are a lot more alike than either would care to admit.

Even though we mostly know how the story will end, Jedi Knights is still the perfect opportunity to finally dive deeper into this unseen chapter of Obi-Wan’s life. Not only could it offer a look into the psyche of a young Obi-Wan and how this mission potentially affected his relationship with Qui-Gon, but it could also introduce more Mandalorian lore with the civil war as a backdrop.

Satine and Obi-Wan have so much chemistry in The Clone Wars, even after years apart, we can only imagine how much untapped dramatic potential lies in their year together on the run. Forbidden love, life and death scenarios, and Obi-Wan serving as her bodyguard are all ingredients for a great romance—something Star Wars could use a little more of these days.

There’s so much material that could still be mined in Obi-Wan’s story, and his time with Qui-Gon and Satine on Mandalore is the perfect place for a comic series like Star Wars: Jedi Knights to go.

Star Wars: Jedi Knights #1 hits stands in March 2025.