Here Is How Old Obi-Wan Kenobi Is in Each Star Wars Movie

Darth Vader might be the most iconic character in Star Wars, but Obi-Wan Kenobi comes a close second. When we first meet the Jedi Master in ‘A New Hope’ he is the old Jedi veteran who passes his wisdom and knowledge to our hero, Luke Skywalker. When George Lucas released the prequel trilogy, we got to see Kenobi in his younger years as a Jedi Knight fighting in the Clone Wars and training Anakin Skywalker. Through each film, we see him at different stages of his Jedi journey, with each appearance being a different age. So, how old is Obi-Wan Kenobi in each of Star Wars movies? 

With ‘A New Hope,’ it has been confirmed that Obi-Wan is 57 years old. While the intention at the time might have been for him to be older, the prequels have made it so that he ended up being a lot younger than he looked. In the prequel trilogy, Obi-Wan is between the age of 25 in ‘The Phantom Menace’ and 38 in ‘Revenge of the Sith.’

Now that we have briefly covered Obi-Wan’s age across the entire saga, it’s time to analyze it in more detail. If you are interested in more, stay with us and keep reading! 

How old is Obi-Wan in ‘Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace?’

When ‘The Phantom Menace’ came out in 1999, it was one of the biggest releases in cinema history. After not having a Star Wars movie for 16 years, fans rushed to screenings all dressed as Jedi and Sith battling it out with their lightsabers with the reaction to the film being a whole other story.

Audiences finally got to see the Jedi Order in full swing and a much younger Obi-Wan Kenobi with Ewan McGregor playing the part. When we first meet Kenobi, he is a padawan training under Qui-Gon Jinn at the age of 25 years old. In Star Wars lore, padawans are typically much younger, but in expanded lore, it has been revealed that Obi-Wan was a slow learner and progressed at a slower rate than his peers.

However, by the end of this film, he has killed a Sith and is forced to take Anakin under his wing due to the death of his master, going from a Padwan at the start to a Jedi Knight with an apprentice at the end. 

How old is Obi-Wan in ‘Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones’?

Taking place 10 years after ‘The Phantom Menace’, Obi-Wan is now a 35-year-old fully fledged Jedi Knight with a 19-year-old Anakin Skywalker as his apprentice. Not only is Obi-Wan getting older but by this point he is starting to resemble what Alec Guinness looked like as the character. Giving him a full beard and Ewan McGregor also making changes to his voice and mannerisms were little subtle ways of showing the character is aging over time.

Throughout the film, his combat abilities and connection to the force have increased tremendously since the first film, showing his experience as a Jedi over the last decade. Considering there were only three years between ‘The Phantom Menace’ and this film with Ewan McGregor not aging much in real life, it was these small changes that made the decade-long gap much more believable.  

How old is Obi-Wan in ‘Star Wars Episode III – Revenge of the Sith’? 

Since ‘Attack of the Clones’, three years have passed with the Clone Wars Happening between both films. This might give us an Obi-Wan who is only three years older at 38 but now has much more combat experience and is now a full Jedi Master.

While the Clone Wars only lasted three years, Obi-Wan fought in a lot of battles and experienced tons of loss, making the character much wiser and closer to the way Alec Guinness was in ‘A New Hope’.

Not only does he still have the beard, but he now also has much shorter hair and is styled similarly to what it was in ‘A New Hope’. With this being the last film of the prequel trilogy, it made sense to have Ewan Mcgregor resemble what his character will look like in the future. 

How old is Obi-Wan in ‘Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope’?

‘A New Hope’ was the world’s first introduction to the Star Wars Universe. One thing this film did incredibly well was the amount of world-building it had. With little lines from characters referencing the Clone Wars and the Jedi Knights, we also got our very first on-screen Jedi with Obi-Wan Kenobi played by Alec Guinness.

When we first meet Obi-Wan he is intended to be 57 years old, which is five years younger than Guinness, who was 62. Whether or not he was intended to be older at the time is uncertain, but due to the prequels and the 19-year gap between the two trilogies, he is now placed at this age. 

In Legends, it has been stated that living on Tatooine can actually age people a lot quicker than the age they are due to the twin suns, which could explain his rapid age as he lived there for 19 years, but this is yet to be confirmed in canon. 

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