Obi-Wan Kenobi saved its two biggest cameos for the finale, with Liam Neeson reprising the role of Qui-Gon Jinn and Ian McDiarmid returning as Emperor Palpatine. The latter made it clear to Darth Vader that it was time for his obsession with his former Master to end, explaining why the former Anakin Skywalker put his quest for revenge to one side.
Talking to The Direct about his plans for the Disney+ series when it was going to be a movie, original writer Stuart Beattie said Palpatine was part of his script from the very start.
"To me, Vader in this period is just so obsessed with Kenobi, so obsessed with revenge and what you [he] did to [him], he just wants to put a lightsaber to him. He wants to kill this guy," the writer says. "In my film, he was under pressure from the Emperor from the beginning. 'Forget Kenobi. Forget Kenobi. That's Anakin, let that go. Focus on the present, we've got this problem and this problem, this problem,' you know, and Vader just can't let it go."
Beattie would go on to explain that Palpatine had tasked Vader with stopping a Rebel uprising on a Moon somewhere, and even confirmed that the movie was going to open with the Sith Lord murdering a group of Jedi. Needless to say, Vader didn't want to hear his Master's objections and hit back at him with a line referencing one of Palpatine's biggest failings in Revenge of the Sith.
"I had this really funny line. It was Vader saying, 'Look, Kenobi is one of the two biggest threats in the Galaxy.' And the Emperor responds, 'Pity you didn't kill him when you had the chance.' And Vader responds, 'The other one is Yoda.' And the Emperor just gets really pissed off at him. 'You forget your place.' [Laughs] He's on him from the start, 'Let this go. That's Anakin. You're Darth now.'"
That would have been a lot of fun to see, though perhaps a tad too comedic for someone like Vader. Still, we'd have enjoyed seeing Yoda referenced as the fact he went into hiding on Dagobah has rarely been addressed.
There's always room for that down the line, of course, and we certainly wouldn't be against a future Disney+ TV series putting the spotlight on the iconic Jedi Master. After all, isn't it possible he also had some adventures during the time he spent in hiding prior to The Empire Strikes Back.
All episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi are now streaming on Disney+!