A Jedi Master from the Star Wars franchise, the iconic character of Obi-Wan Kenobi became famous enough to spawn prequels and original trilogies, and now its very own television miniseries as well. With Ewan McGregor portraying the character in the one-season six-episode TV show, Obi-Wan Kenobi, the show became quite popular among fans as it got tremendously positive reviews to its initial screening.
Yet, as easy as it is to watch a show and criticize or applaud it, it is equally difficult to produce and create it, especially if you have to keep prequels and original trilogies of it in mind, as revealed by the miniseries’ director, Deborah Chow.
Obi-Wan Kenobi Director Deborah Chow Details Her Work On The Series
While Deborah Chow did amazing work in creating the television miniseries, Obi-Wan Kenobi, it was also a big challenge for her, judging from how she had to connect points between the character’s prequels as well as its original trilogy. Doing this, she also developed the projects as well as the iconic characters into a new, brilliant aspect.
“Everybody knows what happened to them, before and after, and you’re starting with a character where the public perception is that he should be sitting on that rock for 20 years. But those 20 years (between ‘Revenge of the Sith’ and ‘A New Hope’) had so much to explore on an emotional level. So for us, the big thing was emotional authenticity and that this felt innately like the right journey for these characters who were coming out of the prequels and into ‘A New Hope’.”
She further detailed how she imagined she would connect the Ewan McGregor starrer series with the originals, and ended up doing it.
“There’s one that grew up with the originals and another that grew up with the prequels. When we made the announcement that we were bringing back Hayden, that prequel generation became very clear all of a sudden. They loved the prequels, and Hayden was their guy. It was lovely, honestly, to work on something that was for a different generation of Star Wars fans.”
Although it sounds easy to say, it was rather difficult for Chow to connect the prequels and originals with the sequels, thus, also the reason why she wants future Star Wars directors to avoid the Skywalkers legacy and focus on better and original storylines.
Deborah Chow’s Piece Of Advice To Future Star Wars Projects Directors
With her deep insight into the Star Wars lore and fascinating vision for the future of the fan-favorite saga, Deborah Chow was asked for a piece of advice that she would give to the future directors of the franchise’s projects. Taking note of her own personal experience, she put it rather simply: to work towards original storylines, free from the shackles of the huge Star Wars canon.
“The biggest thing I learned from The Mandalorian is to not get hung up on the Star Wars of it all. It’s hard on a project where there is so much canon and so much responsibility to a fan base, but I would always go, ‘If you take the Star Wars out of this and it’s just people and human emotions, does this story still hold up?’”
Nonetheless, it remains to be seen whether directors of future projects will adopt Deborah Chow’s vision or choose to go with more orthodox and traditional lines of storytelling.
You can stream season one of Obi-Wan Kenobi on Disney+.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
