At Just $90M, Disney+’s Lowest-Budget Star Wars Series Is the Franchise’s Best Weekend Binge

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Published Feb 25, 2026, 6:41 PM EST

Collier Jennings is an entertainment journalist with a substantial amount of experience under his belt. Collier, or "CJ" to his friends and family, is a dedicated fan of genre films - particularly science fiction, fantasy and comic book adaptations, not to mention all forms of animation animation. This stems from a close bond with his father, who introduced him to these genres via copies of X-Men comics and reruns of the original Ultraman series. Using his near-encyclopedic knowledge and bottomless love of genre, he's been able to tackle a wide variety of articles.

Star Wars is finally returning to the big screen with The Mandalorian and Grogu, but the franchise has also thrived thanks to a steady stream of shows on Disney+. Said shows also tend to be fairly expensive: a single season of The Acolyte cost roughly $230 million dollars, while Andor topped out at a whopping $645 million across two seasons. There's a Star Wars series that actually costs far less than fans might expect, and it's one that they can binge-watch during a single weekend: Obi-Wan Kenobi. Kenobi had a production budget of approximately $90 million, yet put it to good use.

Set in the decade between Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope, Obi-Wan Kenobi follows Ewan McGregor's titular Jedi as he struggles with the guilt of failing to prevent his former apprentice, Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) from falling to the Dark Side of the Force. While Obi-Wan would prefer to stay on Tattooine and watch over Luke Skywalker, he eventually ends up on a galaxy-spanning journey to save a young Leia Organa (Vivien Lyra Blair), running afoul of Darth Vader and his Inquisitors in the process.

'Obi-Wan Kenobi' Prioritizes Character Over Spectacle

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Part of what makes Obi-Wan Kenobi a great watch is the work that's done with each character, showcasing how they grow into the figures we see in the original Star Wars trilogy. Throughout the series, Obi-Wan grapples with lingering guilt and uncertainty over his future; finding and protecting Leia gives him new purpose, as does his confrontation with Vader. In the series finale, Obi-Wan finally lets go of that guilt, returning to protect Luke and reconnecting with his former master Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson). Though she's only a child, Leia shows flashes of independence and ingenuity, highlighting the leader she'll become in future Star Wars films.

Even the villains get time to shine, particularly Reva Savander (Moses Ingram), the Inquisitor better known as the Third Sister. At first, it appears that Reva is merely hunting Obi-Wan and Leia down, but then her true goals are revealed; she wants to get close to and kill Vader for his participation in the events of Order 66. In a rarity for Star Wars villains, Reva even gets to live as she realizes vengeance isn't the answer to her problems. Vader himself also has an emotional moment in the season finale, where he admits that Obi-Wan wasn't responsible for his fall to darkness. This isn't just a villain actually admitting that he's the problem; it's when Anakin Skywalker truly dies, and Darth Vader rises in his place.

Obi-Wan Kenobi pictured beside Darth Maul and Yoda from 'Star Wars'

'Obi-Wan Kenobi' Was Originally Meant to Be A Feature Film

Before it hit Disney+, Obi-Wan Kenobi was originally developed as a feature film, with a much different plot. Obi-Wan would have stayed on Tatooine throughout the entirety of the film and ended up protecting Luke from hordes of Tusken Raiders. Due to Solo: A Star Wars Story flopping at the box office, the Kenobi film was shelved; it also didn't help that Jason Aaron's tenure on Marvel's Star Wars comics featured Obi-Wan battling all manner of threats on Tatooine. The series would eventually enter development, but a creative overhaul happened when Lucasfilm realized the idea of Obi-Wan protecting Luke was far too similar to The Mandalorian. Ewan McGregor discussed how the story changed at a Fan Expo panel in 2022:

"It was going to be a story about me and Luke. It was always going to be that, and that was one of the genius moments where everyone went, 'Wait a minute,' and then it changed."

The change works for the better, as it allows Obi-Wan and Leia to bond while also offering different locations, such as the crime-ridden world of Daiyu and the Inquisitors' massive fortress on an underwater planet. Looking at these locations, you can't tell that the production was only $90 million, which goes to show that director Deborah Chow knows how to make the most bang for her buck. It's also a lesson for streamers: people respond to great stories, not to how much money you can throw on-screen, and Obi-Wan Kenobi turned out to be a great one.