Ever since Star Wars started doing prequel stories, it has been answering questions that maybe didn’t need answering while simultaneously introducing new questions that probably do need answering, one of which being: How the heck did Obi-Wan Kenobi learn to turn himself into a ghost so he could talk to Luke in later movies after he died? The obvious answer was “it’s a movie about space wizards who can do space magic, he probably used space magic,” but Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge Of The Sith decided to have Yoda tease that Obi-Wan’s old master Qui-Gon Jin had mastered the ability to come back as a ghost… despite nobody ever seeing him do it.
Until now! It took 20 years from when Liam Neeson’s Qui-Gon Jinn died in Star Wars: Episode I—The Phantom Menace, but he finally got around to showing up to Obi-Wan as a ghost in the closing moments of this week’s Obi-Wan Kenobi finale on Disney+. It wasn’t Neeson’s first Star Wars gig since he died in The Phantom Menace, as he previously made some cameos in the Clone Wars cartoon and during the big mess of nonsense that was the final battle of The Rise Of Skywalker, but this was the first time Star Wars actually paid off the post-Revenge Of The Sith tease with Qui-Gon showing up as a ghost and saying some folksy Jedi stuff to Obi-Wan.
The Hollywood Reporter caught up with Neeson to ask him about his long-awaited return to Star Wars, and he summed up his reason for finally returning pretty succinctly:
I certainly didn’t want anyone else playing Qui-Gon Jinn, and I wanted to show my respect for George [Lucas] and that mythical world that he created. Plus, Ewan [McGregor] is a pal, and I loved working with him during The Phantom Menace 25 years ago.
This technically wasn’t Neeson’s first time working with Disney Star Wars, but it is somewhat interesting that he specifically mentions George Lucas there. Did he delay his Star Wars return because he was waiting for the maestro to give his go-ahead, and now, so many decades later, he realized that Disney’s cash spends just as well as Lucas’? It’s not like Liam Neeson has been picky in the decades since he did a Star Wars.
Whatever finally convinced him to appear on Obi-Wan Kenobi, at least we can count this as one important canon thing that happened on the show. As it stands, Disney hasn’t said anything about Obi-Wan Kenobi coming back for another timeline-straining season, but stars Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen would at least be up for it. Maybe Qui-Gon’s ghost will stop by as well for some sidequest adventures to explain why he didn’t appear until now?