Obi-Wan Kenobi

There’s no Jedi quite like Obi-Wan Kenobi. No one so perfectly encapsulates the goodness of the Jedi Order. He is the safety amidst the turmoil of galactic civil war and treacherous betrayal. His character is developed from start to finish, and yet it feels like we will never exhaust the Obi-Wan stories to be told. From his apprenticeship under Qui-Gon to the Dark Times on Tatooine, Obi-Wan’s journey has graced every corner of Star Wars storytelling. If you only know Obi-Wan from visual media, you’ve barely scratched the surface.

On the Canon side of things, Master and Apprentice shows Obi-Wan’s struggle to be the best by-the-books Jedi under the tutelage of a roguish master obsessed with ancient prophecy. Marvel’s prequel material explores Kenobi’s self-doubt regarding whether he will be as good a master as Qui-Gon.

The Legends universe features Kenobi in wonderful ways as well. John Jackson Miller’s flagship novel, Kenobi, serves as the template for what life could be like a stranded Jedi-no-more in the period between Episodes III and IV. Wild Space is a buddy-cop novel featuring Obi-Wan alongside Bail Organa, forging a friendship that bridges into Revenge of the Sith and even Original Trilogy, from a certain point of view. Not to be overlooked are the stories that show the development of his camaraderie with Anakin Skywalker, who would become like a brother to him. Don’t snooze on Scholastic’s entries to Obi-Wan’s mythology either; the Jedi Apprentice and Jedi Quest series are perhaps the strangest and most in-depth glimpses into the character, featuring more than thirty young reader novels with everything from Obi-Wan witnessing the accidental death of arrival to leaving the Jedi Order to falling in love.

If you can’t wait for the new Disney+ series starring Ewan McGregor, there’s plenty here to fill the void in the meantime–you won’t be disappointed.