'Obi-Wan Kenobi' Age Plot Hole Conveniently Fixed By Fan Theory

It’s been a question on the lips of many Star Wars fans for years. Just how on earth did Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan Kenobi age into Sir Alec Guiness’s Obi-Wan Kenobi between Star Wars: Revenge Of The Sith and A New Hope?

TV shows like Star Wars: The Clone Wars have helped fill the gap just a wee bit, but there’s still very little accounting for the jedi’s aging. Of course we now have the Obi-Wan Kenobi Disney+ series where McGregor is reprising his role, but there’s still no getting around the fact that the two do still look different. Helped in no small part by the fact that McGregor really has aged very well, the lucky blighter.

Check out the trailer for Obi-Wan Kenobi to get an idea of what we’re talking about.

Okay, so let’s get down to brass tacks and figure this one out, shall we? According to Yodasdatapad.com, Obi-Wan is a spritely 38 years old at the end of Revenge Of The Sith, and 57 During A New Hope. The Obi-Wan Kenobi series is set nine years before A New Hope, so this puts the man himself at a mere 48 years young. McGregor is 51 right now, and Guinness was 62 at the time of filming A New Hope. So far, so good.

But a new fan theory has proposed an interesting solution for the difference in appearance of the two actors and, within the limits of the Star Wars universe, it actually kinda makes sense. Twitter user @TomStheVoice reckons that Obi-Wan could have been zapped by some debilitating force power, and with the return of Hayden Christensen as Darth Vader confirmed, and a whole bunch of Inquisitors running around, it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch.

I mean, just look at what happened to Sheev Palpatine when Mace Windu gave him a taste of his own force lightning during their battle. The guy melted like a candle and the attempt on his life left him scarred and deformed, by his own admission.

Of course, this is merely a theory and in no way confirmation of it happening. With a full nine years left of timeline to fill in Kenobi’s life, it’s quite possible that we’re going to get multiple series’ between now and then if it’s a hit with fans. And of course if McGregor doesn’t end up being an exact replica of Guinness at the same age, Disney might just do a little bit of digital jiggery pokery to morph the faces of the two actors as they’ve done several times before in the galaxy far, far away.