Not only will May’s Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi see the return of Ewan McGregor to the galaxy far, far away, but also that of his Prequel Trilogy co-star Hayden Christensen who is set to don the armor of Darth Vader once again as he reprises the role of Obi-Wan’s fallen apprentice and current Dark Lord of the Sith.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly ahead of the Disney+ show, director Deborah Chow (The Mandalorian) has been speaking about the decision to include Vader in the limited series, revealing that: “The debate around whether we should do that or not carried on for quite some time. Everybody within our creative team has strong opinions, and all of our fans have strong opinions. So when you realize that you’re under that level of scrutiny, certainly a story point like that is going to be scrutinized at a very high level. We talked about it constantly.”
“Honestly, for me the starting place was that I really wanted to do something that was character-based and character-driven, because that is the benefit of the limited series, is that you have more time to sort of tell a real character story,” Chow continued. “And so for me, the starting place of character is you just start and you look at who has been important to [Obi-Wan] in his life. And it’s quite hard to avoid Anakin/Vader in that scenario, especially coming out of Revenge of the Sith. So really it came out of an evolution of the character for me. It wasn’t just to sort of bring him back. It was really like, who means something and where are we at this point in the timeline with Vader?”
SEE ALSO: Mark Hamill welcomes Obi-Wan Kenobi’s young Luke Skywalker actor to the Star Wars universe
Chow went on to explain what kind of Vader we can expect to see in the series, adding that: “For us, it’s very similar [to Obi-Wan] in the sense that he’s in between these two trilogies. So he isn’t the New Hope Vader quite yet, you know what I mean? So we are with the character sort of in the middle of this period. It is still Vader obviously, but it’s a Vader that isn’t quite as fully formed as A New Hope.”
“During the reign of the Galactic Empire, former Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi embarks on a crucial mission. Kenobi must confront allies turned enemies and face the wrath of the Empire.”
Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi is being directed by Deborah Chow (The Mandalorian), with McGregor joined in the cast by Hayden Christensen (Darth Vader), Joel Edgerton (Owen Lars) and Bonnie Piesse (Beru Lars), as well as Star Wars newcomers Moses Ingram, Kumail Nanjiani, Indira Varma, Rupert Friend, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Sung Kang, Simone Kessell, Maya Erskine, Benny Safdie and Grant Feely.
Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi will premiere on Disney+ on May 25th.
