‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ review: Ewan McGregor returns as the Jedi Knight in the years before ‘Star Wars: A New Hope’

It’s worth recalling a stand-alone movie was actually the original plan for this series, which features Ewan McGregor reprising his role from the prequel trilogy, before the box-office underperformance of “Solo” prompted Lucasfilm to go in a different direction.

Although there’s an extensive time gap between movies, some of this period was covered in the excellent animated series “Star Wars Rebels,” which introduced to the screen Inquisitors, lightsaber-wielding villains tasked with hunting down those Jedi who survived the purge orchestrated by the Emperor. As the trailer explains, the Inquisitors’ secret weapon is the nature of the Jedi themselves, as the Inquisitors seek to lure their prey into the open by testing their innate goodness.

While the Inquisitors have tracked lesser Jedi across the galaxy, one in particular, Reva (Moses Ingram), appears obsessed with locating Kenobi, who is living an existence of desert drudgery while hiding in plain view. He watches the young Luke from a respectable distance, which is still too close to suit the boy’s Uncle Owen (Joel Edgerton), who well remembers how he ended up with the lad in his care.

Directed by “The Mandalorian” veteran Deborah Chow, these episodes most significantly concoct a more-than-plausible explanation, which shouldn’t be spoiled, for bringing Kenobi out of his cave and into jeopardy. That scenario also creates plenty of opportunities for callbacks that, in a theatrical setting, would have fans whooping and hollering.

Those other flourishes aside, McGregor — 17 years removed from “Revenge of the Sith” — proves an enormous asset, perfectly capturing the legendary Jedi at this stage, still wounded by having lost Anakin Skywalker to the dark side and wearily left in a holding pattern that offers room for some hope but, under current circumstances, not a whole lot.

Those considerations aside, the Disney+ series presents subscribers what feels like a wonderful distraction, no Jedi mind tricks required. While there are still four installments to come, based on the liftoff, the Force is still very much with “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” which may possess a bit less spring in its step but has lost none of its allure to those who have long followed him.

“Obi-Wan Kenobi” premieres May 27 on Disney+.