Obi-Wan Kenobi: The Series Is a Character Study in Which Obi-Wan Realizes Anakin Survived

Only a few days separate us from the release of the first two episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi, and the cast and crew are actively promoting the series on social media and via interviews with several outlets. As part of those press rounds, director Deborah Chow recently spoke to Gizmodo and clarified one of the key aspects that made them realize Vader had a role to play in the series.



When crafting the story, both Chow and writer Joby Harold realized that, in order to do a proper character study of Obi-Wan, they would need to explore what's important to him. His life post-Revenge of the Sith was defined by the fact that he thought he'd killed Anakin after he'd turned to the dark side. However, when A New Hope begins, Ben Kenobi is already aware of what happened: “A young Jedi named Darth Vader, who was a pupil of mine until he turned to evil, helped the Empire hunt down and destroy the Jedi Knights. He betrayed and murdered your father”, he said to Luke.



The writer-director duo realized there must have been a key moment in between the movies in which Obi-Wan learned that Anakin had survived and become Vader. That was one of their motivations for bringing him into the story:

But if they were going to tell that story, they needed to be very careful not to contradict what happened in A New Hope, when it is said the master and his former apprentice haven't seen each other in a long time. As Chow said, it was really important for them to be respectful of that other iconic moment in the 1977 film:

Shortly after Hayden Christensen was announced to be back as Vader, our own John Hoey wrote an editorial on how A New Hope could inform us about what is going to happen in Obi-Wan Kenobi. You can check it out here.



It's very evident that Chow and her team approached Obi-Wan Kenobi from a place of love and respect, trying to avoid overwriting canon for the sake of fanservice. The highly anticipated series will finally debut its first two episodes next Friday, May 27th, and will air the rest weekly on Wednesdays. Stay tuned for more news as well as our reviews of each episode.



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