Obi-Wan Kenobi begins 10 years after the events of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith where Obi-Wan Kenobi faced his greatest defeat—the downfall and corruption of his best friend and Jedi apprentice, Anakin Skywalker, who turned to the dark side as evil Sith Lord Darth Vader.
Last week Vision got to hear from Deborah Chow, the director and executive producer for Obi-Wan Kenobi, as well as Obi-Wan himself Ewan McGregor and Moses Ingram who plays Reva, an Imperial Inquisitor in the upcoming Disney+ show. The press conference revealed lots of exciting things to get us even more hyped up for McGregor’s return to Star Wars and we’ve rounded up some of the highlights below.
It’s been a long time coming with it being 17 years since we last saw Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan in Revenge of the Sith but nonetheless McGregor is very excited to return to the character. For years, in every interview he did he would always be asked two things; would he do a sequel to Trainspotting, and would he return to play Kenobi again. We’ve had a Trainspotting sequel in 2017, so it’s now time to see him return to play the eponymous Jedi. It eventually reached the point where Disney reached out to him and asked if he wanted to do a story between Episodes III and IV, that’s exactly what we’ve ended up with now.
Director Deborah Chow is no stranger to Star Wars having directed a couple of episodes of The Mandalorian, but this time around she was “really excited at the idea of getting to do a limited series for one” so that she could tell a bigger story and really get into the character of Obi-Wan. Getting to tell a singular character story in the way of Logan or Joker and getting to “take one character out of a big franchise…and you go a lot deeper with the character” was a really exciting opportunity for Chow. For Moses, she loved the fact that Reva “is always 10 steps ahead” and does everything she can to get the job done which is what attracted to her to the series.
McGregor talked of how the thing that sets this Obi-Wan apart from the other screen adaptations we’ve seen of him is that after the events of Revenge of the Sith he can’t communicate with any of his old comrades and is living a solitary life. Only now, he has the responsibility of dealing with his past life and looking over Luke Skywalker on Tatooine. Crucially, “he’s not able to use the Force…he’s lost his faith. It’s like somebody who’s stepped away from their religion”. McGregor’s Obi-Wan is now at a point where he’s the closest he’s ever been to Alec Guinness’s portrayal of the character.
One of the biggest things about the show is the return of Hayden Christensen’s Anakin/Darth Vader. Chow felt it was “natural” that Hayden would come back and that Vader would be an important part of Kenobi’s story given the relationship between the two characters. And for McGregor, who’d fallen out of touch with Christensen over the years, it was really “very exciting” to be back together again and on set together as if the last 17 years didn’t happen at all.
Even though the Prequel Trilogy isn’t the most loved by fans and it’s spawned its fair share of memes, McGregor was still excited to be able to come back for the fans. “Star Wars fans are amazingly passionate and they’re probably some of the strongest fans in the world” and he’s thrilled to be able to finally give an Obi-Wan series to the fans, after years of asking for it.
From a technical perspective, much like The Mandalorian, the show was filmed on the Volume, a curved set of glowing LED screens that make a virtual set and for Chow it was one of the things that made The Mandalorian so good and so being able to use it again, especially with advances in the technology since then was a real treat. For Ingram it was just a joy being on a set with lifelong Star Wars fans that were living their dream by working on the show. Whereas McGregor, who’d had to deal with all the blue and green screens on the Prequel sets, working with the Volume was “so cool” and made it so much easier to act this time around.
Despite working on the Volume, it didn’t make the lightsaber fight scenes any easier though with Ewan claiming “it’s impossible not to” make the lightsaber noises whilst rehearsing their fight scenes. When they’ve got lots of John Williams music playing in the background whilst doing the action scenes, Ewan McGregor would be there making his own lightsaber sound effects.
For McGregor it was just “crazy” putting Kenobi’s costume back on after all that time and walking out onto the set. But for Deborah Chow, that was the biggest challenge of it all, trying to handle the legacy of “these huge iconic characters” whilst respecting the canon “but at the same time it was very exciting that we were bringing back two of the huge iconic characters and telling a new story with them”. Ewan McGregor, Deborah Chow and Moses Ingram all seemed thoroughly enthusiastic about their new show and can’t wait for Star Wars fans to see it soon.
Obi-Wan Kenobi will premiere with 2 episodes on Disney+ on Friday, May 27, with the remaining episodes being released weekly on Wednesdays.