Star Wars lovers everywhere celebrated when Disney+’s Obi-Wan Kenobi scored five nominations at the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards. This includes a coveted spot in the Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series category. It’s the first Star Wars show to earn that honor and only the second for Disney+ (WandaVision received a nod in 2021). There, it will compete against the likes of Daisy Jones and the Six and Beef, with Dahmer predicted to take home the award.
However, much to die-hard fans’ disappointment, this doesn’t necessarily bode well for the prospect of a second season. It was already looking bleak after Kathleen Kennedy stated that it wasn’t in active development, even though Ewan McGregor is doing his very best to make sure he gets another chance to return to the beloved character. Could this be the final nail in the coffin of Obi-Wan Kenobi? It’s certainly starting to look like it.
The Guidelines of the Category Restrict Continuations
The Limited or Anthology Series Emmy is awarded to a show with at least two episodes and runs for 150 minutes. It must tell a complete story on its own, meaning there can’t be any hints that there’s going to be a follow-up story either. As if that wasn’t disheartening enough, it also states that there must not be any continuing storylines or main characters in any potential later season. This would restrict the appearance of Obi-Wan Kenobi’s most popular characters, including, unfortunately, the Jedi himself.
Other shows nominated in this category have managed to get a second season, with the most notable being The White Lotus and American Horror Story. However, they managed to play into a loophole in the category — the anthology part of the title. Though the general premise remains the same, the major cast of characters rotates out, and the first season isn’t necessary to understand the second. Thus, they’re still eligible for the Limited Series category rather than any of the drama or comedy ones.
Obi-Wan Kenobi Could Still Get a Second Season — Here’s How
This loophole could be used to theoretically make another season of Obi-Wan Kenobi, even if it doesn’t necessarily look the way fans originally imagined. Take the upcoming Ahsoka series, for example. It’s being promoted as essentially a fifth season of Star Wars Rebels. However, the creators also claim it’s a story that can stand on its own and doesn’t need any context from the animated shows to understand — which would, in theory, make it eligible for a Limited Series Emmy nomination. However, this would mean pre-existing characters such as Sabine, Ezra, and Hera will be reduced to supporting roles, which may not bode well for the show.
A second season of Obi-Wan Kenobi could come in the form of something similar — a spin-off about one of the supporting characters, such as Moses Ingram’s Reva, Kumail Nanjiani’s Haja Estree, or even the Organa family. There’s room for Obi-Wan to make a reappearance in any of these stories, but he wouldn’t be the main character. Therefore, the rules of the show’s Emmy nominations wouldn’t be violated, and Ewan McGregor would get to return to a role he loves so dearly. However, the odds still aren’t great, and fans may have to accept that they’ve seen the last of him, at least for now.
All episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi are currently streaming on Disney+.