EW has released a deep dive into the 17 year journey to reunite Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen on screen again, and you should definitely head over to their site to read the full post.
If you’re a lazy person though, we’ve captured some of the more intriguing highlights, such as Obi-Wan’s mental state, his overall journey across the series’ six episodes, Mandalorian crossover potential, and the chance of Kenobi getting a second season.
Kenobi’s Grief and Overall Journey
In the article, Ewan talks about Obi-Wan’s mental state at the start of the series, and according to him, he’s not in a good place at all.
“Obi-Wan is lost. He’s a broken man after what happened with the Jedi order at the end of Episode III, but also what happened with Anakin; that he lost him to the dark side. He feels an enormous amount of responsibility for that, and guilt.”
Ewan McGregor – EW
For those of you who questioned if Obi-Wan has failed in his life from this week’s episode of the SWTS, the above quote should make the point even more clear. Yes, Obi-Wan has had great failures.
While at the start Obi-Wan will be a beaten man, Joby Harold, who was brought in to rewrite the script, does hint that he will experience growth over the series and come out of it with a bit more hope.
“When we last saw Obi-Wan in the prequels, he’s very emotional. There’s a passion to him. And when we get to see him again in A New Hope, he is the Zen master. That was the story that I wanted to understand — what had happened to Obi-Wan between the guy that Ewan had brought to life and the guy that Sir Alec Guinness brought to life.”
Joby Harold – EW
This is where the Kenobi series can shine, because Harold is right. Obi-Wan is busted at this point, but whatever he experiences in this series will lead to him regaining hope, and to start heading down the path to become the wise Old Ben we all met in A New Hope. One would think his inevitable interactions with Vader will play a role in this, but other characters and experiences may drive this change too.
Mando-verse Crossovers
The article also touched on the potential of having characters from the Mando-verse appear in this series, and it sounds like fans shouldn’t hold their breath. According to Deborah Chow, this series is more related to the Prequel era than The Mandalorian’s timeline, so fans shouldn’t expect Din to appear, or other characters that are prominent in that timeline.
Vader’s Voice
The EW report did discuss who may be voicing Vader, but according to them Lucasfilm would neither confirm, nor deny James Earl Jones’ involvement. He is 91, so there is a chance that Vader’s voice will be recast, but only time will reveal that now.
Obi-Wan Kenobi Season 2
When asked about the potential of this series getting a second run, Chow was much more closed to the idea than Kathleen Kennedy. Chow says the story has a clear beginning, middle, and end, but KK seemed to leave the door open just a bit.
“It’s certainly something we talk about, mainly because everybody came together and had such an incredible time. Ewan had an incredible time. Hayden had an incredible time. So certainly from that point of view, everybody involved would love to see this not end. But we have to really spend our time asking the question: Why would we do it? If we were to decide to do anything more with the Obi-Wan character, we’d have to really answer the question why?”
Kathleen Kennedy – EW
Most fans would probably love more Kenobi, but there’s also the asshole wing of the fandom too, so you never know. One would hope that if a great new story is formed, Lucasfilm would pursue it, but if fans make a big enough stink over pointless issues like the size of character’s heads, the studio could say screw it even if there was potential for another story to play out before the events of A New Hope.
Nick and I will talk more about this interview on next week’s episode of the SWTS, so don’t forget to tune into the Star Wars Time Show on a weekly basis via our podcast platforms or via YouTube if you prefer the livestream angle.
