Having escaped Darth Vader, Obi-Wan and Tala infiltrate the Inquisitors' stronghold on the ocean moon of Nur in the Mustafar system to rescue a captured Leia, who is being interrogated by the Third Sister.
[4][5] Deborah Chow was hired to direct all episodes for the series by September 2019, while Joby Harold became the head writer and showrunner in April 2020 following Kennedy's disapproval with the scripts and subsequent rewrites.
[2][8][9] Chow also took inspirations from "gritty, poetic westerns" including The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007), The Proposition (2005), and the works of Akira Kurosawa.
[11] He conceived of showing the Jedi corpses within the vault in the Fortress Inquisitorius as he wanted to include something "within the bowels of that facility" that would be "shocking" and "consistent with Star Wars".
[12] Furthermore, Harold also felt the episode marked a turning point in Kenobi's overall character arc, as he had begun to recover his powers, stating that he is "starting to need to find that part of himself again" in order to rescue Leia.
[13] The episode stars Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi, and features co-stars Indira Varma as Tala Durith, Vivien Lyra Blair as Princess Leia, Moses Ingram as Reva Sevander / Third Sister, O'Shea Jackson Jr. as Roken, Maya Erskine as Sully, Sung Kang as the Fifth Brother, Rya Kihlstedt as the Fourth Sister, and Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker / Darth Vader.
Fortress Inquisitorius and the ocean moon of Nur that featured in "Part IV" were first introduced by Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (2019).
Additionally, Jedi Master Tera Sinube from the Clone Wars animated series is featured in the episode's tomb scene in the Fortress.
[11] Principal photography began on May 4, 2021, on the annual Star Wars Day celebration, with Deborah Chow directing, and Chung-hoon Chung serving as cinematographer.
[19] Visual effects for the episode were created by ILM, Hybride, Image Engine, Important Looking Pirates, Soho VFX, Wētā FX, Blind LTD, and ReDefine.
The site's critical consensus reads, "Obi-Wan Kenobi "Part IV" is a slick caper in a (space) vacuum, but there is an anxious sense that this saga is spinning its wheels when it can't afford to waste its limited runtime".
She also praised the cinematography and direction, in particular commending the lighting during scenes featuring Kenobi's lightsabers, and lauded both Blair and McGregor's performance.
He also praised Ingram's performance in the episode, writing she is "slowly emerging as the MVP of the series", noting Reva's characterization and her determination in completing her objectives.
He felt the episode's plot was too derivative from the Death Star infiltration in A New Hope and perceived it as being a "overly straight and simple rollout of events".
Additionally, he praised the Jedi tomb vault scene, and concluded his review by stating "The shared pain of Obi-Wan and Reva is there, somewhere, hinting at something more complicated and regretful.