Obi-Wan Kenobi: Kumail Nanjiani possibly hints at a visit to Dannar's Claim
Is the plot to the new show already available?
Obi-Wan Kenobi is finally getting the backstory he deserves.
After years of knowing the Jedi Master as an eccentric recluse, a wise mentor, a begrudging padawan, and finally a grieving brother, fans will see the character’s journey completed by his upcoming Disney+ series.
To that effect, there’s one role we’ve yet to see him play: the guardian angel watching Luke grow up from afar. Thankfully, that’s set to change in Obi-Wan Kenobi. While the plot of the seres remains a mystery, new details suggest it could be inspired by a non-canon novel.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi co-star (and star of Eternals) Kumail Nanjiani describes the shooting of one scene, describing a “warehouse” setting:
“The first scene we shot, it was Star Wars outside the windows, with aliens walking around and ships flying by and all this stuff, but the rest of it just looked like a warehouse. So I did a couple of takes and then Ewan was like, ‘You know, none of this is real.’ I knew the windows weren’t real, but the walls weren’t either! I looked and I was like, ‘Wow, the walls are projected.’ The only thing that was real in the whole room was the desk I was sitting at.”
For some fans, this was sufficiently vague in terms of not revealing too much about the series’ direction.,
But the concept of a warehouse has led some fans to think the location Nanjiani describes is actually Dannar’s Claim, a one-stop-shop featured heavily in Kenobi, a Legends novel by John Jackson Miller that followed Obi-Wan through his years hiding on Tatooine.
Lost Legends is an Inverse series about the forgotten lore of our favorite stories.
The cover art for Kenobi, published in 2013.
Dannar’s Claim was a general store, inn, and cantina run by the widowed Anileen Calwell, who later came to have romantic feelings for Obi-Wan. Her feelings were not reciprocated, and Anileen was ultimately resettled on Alderaan, where she received an education.
Dannar’s Claim sounds an awful lot like the Walmart of Tatooine, it’s the most likely candidate for a “warehouse” setting. There’s only one issue with this theory: the Kenobi novel doesn’t deal with Obi-Wan’s larger purpose on Tatooine, focusing instead on a side quest involving Anileen, Jabba, and a no-good vigilante named Orrin Gault.
Obi-Wan Kenobi the series and Kenobi the novel both cover Obi-Wan’s years as Ben Kenobi.
What does this mean for Obi-Wan Kenobi the series? Given that The Mandalorian wasn’t entirely about Baby Yoda in the beginning, it’s likely Obi-Wan Kenobi won’t be entirely about Obi-Wan confronting Darth Vader. While it’s confirmed Hayden Christensen will reprise his role as Anakin, that confrontation isn’t enough to fill a jam-packed Star Wars series.
It’s likely Obi-Wan will instead have to conquer antagonists completely unrelated to his mission of watching over Luke — and the Kenobi novel offers the perfect side-mission to underline Obi-Wan as a romantic lead and a classic hero.
Obi-Wan Kenobi will premiere on Disney+ in 2022.
