Star Wars' Prequel Era Won't Truly Be Over Until One Key Story Happens

Published Aug 15, 2026, 1:15 PM EDT Liz Declan is a Lead Writer for ScreenRant, primarily covering movies. She is a massive fan of Star Wars, the MCU, and Supernatural. In addition to writing, Liz loves attending and covering conventions and interviewing actors. Find her on TikTok and Instagram @va.va.vera The Star Wars fanbase is divided on whether they really want the franchise to move forward from the Skywalkers, the Jedi/Sith, and the prequel trilogy era. While many say that it's time to explore different stories, the response whenever actors like Hayden Christensen and Ewan McGrgeor are involved in a project speaks for itself. In the same vein, when Star Wars movies and TV shows have tried to branch out too much, with shows like The Acolyte and Skeleton Crew and arguably even The Mandalorian and Grogu movie, it has largely backfired. There is hope that this pattern will change with Star Wars' next theatrical release, Star Wars: Starfighter, which is slated for May of next year and will seemingly focus on a non-Jedi character, Ryan Gosling's Kade Auberon (seemingly no relation to the Legends character Cade Skywalker), but that remains to be seen. No matter how that movie performs, though, the question remains: Can Star Wars ever truly move on from the Skywalkers and the prequel trilogy era? After all, both upcoming shows, Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord season 2 and Ahsoka season 2 are heavily tied to both. In fact, the newly released Ahsoka season 2 trailer has revealed that Hayden Christensen won't just be present in the season but will, apparently, play a key role. And, once again, when Christensen stepped out onto the stage for the D23 panel, there was absolute fanfare at his appearance. These points all suggest that neither Star Wars nor its fanbase are actually ready to move on, but one thing is for sure. Before Star Wars truly leaves the Skywalkers and/or the prequel trilogy era in the past, there is one story that must be told. Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi Need To Interact As Force Ghosts At this point in Star Wars, Anakin has gotten closure with several key characters. Although he is returning once again in Ahsoka season 2 and will seemingly be doing even more work with Ahsoka's training and healing that relationship, season 1 of the show really had already brought about a fair bit of closure, especially in the World Between Worlds. Of course, the first person Anakin ever had closure with after becoming Darth Vader was his son, Luke Skywalker, with whom he made amends at the end of Return of the Jedi. Yet, one obvious character—outside of Padmé, who, sadly, can never get closure because she died in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith and cannot return as a Force Ghost—still hasn't gotten that closure, and that's Anakin's former Jedi Master, Obi-Wan Kenobi. The Obi-Wan Kenobi show did depict Obi-Wan apologizing to Anakin "for everything" and Anakin/Vader (surprisingly) telling Obi-Wan that he wasn't his failure, but that's far from the two reconnecting after Anakin returned to the light. Return of the Jedi also showed Obi-Wan and Anakin's Force Ghosts standing side-by-side, but that, too, didn't really give audiences the closure between these two characters that they no doubt want to see. With both being Force Ghosts now, though, that is absolutely something that could happen, and before Star Wars moves on, it must. This is a massive gap still in the franchise, and while it would require swapping Alec Guinness' Force Ghost out for Ewan McGregor's, that wouldn't be too difficult to do—it would cause controversy, no doubt, but Star Wars has navigated choppier waters before. Will We See Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen Together Again? The question remains, in part, whether Star Wars would really bring McGregor and Christensen back together again on screen, although the answer feels likely to be yes. McGregor was actually just on yet another red carpet, this one for The End of Oak Street, saying that both he and Christensen are still interested in such a return. What's more, with Christensen's return in Ahsoka season 2, the door seems more open than ever. Particularly given that the new season is confirmed to have a Clone Wars flashback, in fact, their reunion could even happen then, although that seems far-fetched. Nevertheless, bringing Anakin and Obi-Wan back together one last time, especially as Force Ghosts who can finally discuss all that happened in the prequel trilogy era and find true closure, feels like something Star Wars absolutely has to do, and the franchise only has so long to make it happen (because, sadly, these actors can't remain interested and/or around forever).