Obi-Wan Kenobi theory casts a shadow over A New Hope

As the years go on, Star Wars keeps growing bigger. There’s so much content to chew on these days that it’s possible for fans to make small connections between different stories — even those released decades apart. Recently, one fan tried to connect Obi-Wan Kenobi to A New Hope — and it makes one scene in the movie much darker.

The Reddit theory (originally reported by Inverse) suggests that Obi-Wan, who was sworn to protect Luke in 2022’s Disney+ series, must have actually let Owen and Beru die at the hands of the Empire in A New Hope.

Why? Because in the final episode of the show, Obi-Wan put his life on the line to protect not just Luke, but Owen and Beru as well. One could also argue that he also helped to save Reva by talking her down from an emotional ledge, ideally bringing her closer to a less destructive path than the one she’d been following since Order 66.

If you’ve seen A New Hope — if you haven’t, spoilers for a 45-year-old movie — Owen and Beru don’t survive the next time someone comes to the homestead with a deadly weapon. The above theory assumes that Obi-Wan knew Owen and Beru were in danger and didn’t do anything to stop them, perhaps because doing so would have put Luke in danger as well.

It’s a fun theory — “fun” in a sinister way, of course. It suggests that Obi-Wan really would do anything to keep Luke alive, even if it meant Owen and Beru lost their lives in the process.

The realty is that George Lucas didn’t have the Kenobi finale in mind when making A New Hope almost five decades earlier. Owen and Beru’s deaths were the catalyst that got Luke off Tatooine, and that was that. Obi-Wan protecting them wasn’t part of the story then, but perhaps, if we view it like that now, it only strengthens how much Obi-Wan cared about Luke’s survival over everything else.

Follow Dork Side of the Force for all your Star Wars news, reviews, and more!