Star Wars: Does Obi-Wan Kenobi’s movie need Qui-Gon Jinn?

If Obi-Wan Kenobi does get his standalone film, should Qui-Gon Jinn make an appearance to bring Liam Neeson back to the Star Wars universe?

Ewan McGregor and Liam Neeson have certainly made plenty of career moves since their work together as Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. However, while McGregor pretty clearly is into the idea of coming back to the galaxy, Neeson seems a bit more lukewarm, according to ScreenRant. And while SR argues that Qui-Gon seems almost necessary for an Obi-Wan film, yours truly isn’t so sure.

In fact, SR even cites the chapter from From a Certain Point of View that features Qui-Gon’s perspective as a reason why he should appear. Having read that book (and reviewed it for this very website, citing “Master and Apprentice” as one of my favorite stories), I’d argue that it can actually make the case that Qui-Gon is not actually necessary. Claudia Gray’s story is the perfect coda to their shared story, frankly, because it is, if you’ll excuse the pun, told from Qui-Gon’s point of view.

It legitimately made me tear up, and I don’t think that a director and screenwriters would manage to capture the same emotions from Obi-Wan’s point of view. No spoilers here, but Qui-Gon’s a Force Ghost, so he has a different take on things.

And because of when “Master and Apprentice” takes place (during A New Hope, specifically), any appearance by Qui-Gon in a film would probably seem like something more shoved in than anything else, unless we’re going to see Obi-Wan learn how to become a Force Ghost on screen. (SR notes, as do we, that Qui-Gon canonically learned how to become a Force Ghost first.) Which, hey, that’s not a bad idea, and I’m not objecting to it, but how is that … interesting? We’ve seen training montages before, and I don’t think Qui-Gon will pull a Yoda or Luke and troll his student.

Next: 10 actors we want in the Star Wars franchise

It’s possible that there’s a way to make any Qui-Gon appearance in an Obi-Wan movie meaningful. But just now, we really can’t see it.