With one week until the premiere of Obi-Wan Kenobi on Disney+, we got the opportunity to attend a press conference for the Star Wars series featuring stars Ewan McGregor and Moses Ingram and producer and director Deborah Chow. The trio discussed what it took to make the series and how it feels to finally have it premiering after so much secrecy. Here are the highlights of what we learned from the press conference.
Moses Ingram wanted Reva to be a badass but also an inspiration
The Queen’s Gambit star did not know she was auditioning for Star Wars when she read the fake script. But, when she joined the project, she was given some freedom from Deborah Chow to make Reva, an Inquisitor, her own character. With Star Wars long being a boy-centric franchise, Ingram was excited to change things around like Reva’s hairstyle to make her an inspiration for little girls playing make-believe in a galaxy far far away. She also underwent four months of lightsaber training alongside Ewan McGregor to prep for her role as the newest Inquisitor, a group of characters from the animated series now debuting in live-action. As a subordinate of Darth Vader, Ingram said it was fun to be bad and she loved being on set every day.
New appreciation for the Prequels led to this series becoming a reality
Ewan McGregor said his childhood memories of seeing the first Star Wars led to him meeting many fans of the prequels who have grown up and told him how much they loved the movies. Because of their positivity, McGregor was much more open to returning to play this character. McGregor said playing this character again was one of the questions he was asked most often (the other was whether he would make Trainspotting 2). After three years of secrecy, it is exciting to finally be able to talk about the series. Despite being broken into six episodes, McGregor says the series feels like a movie rather than a show. After doing some screen tests on the set of The Mandalorian for two supporting roles in the series, McGregor realized he needed to relearn the accent and went back to both his performances in the prequels as well as Alec Guinness in A New Hope. After that, it was as easy as putting the costume back on.
Deborah Chow took inspiration from Joker, Logan and Rogue One
Deborah Chow, who directed episodes of The Mandalorian before taking on this series, was excited to explore a character-driven story in the Star Wars universe, especially taking someone from a major series and giving their own tale like the films Joker and Logan did. The restrictions of setting the story between two trilogies means that this series works as both a sequel and a prequel. Respecting canon was vital for her but also forging an original story. The tone of the series is dark and comes at a dark time in the narrative of the saga where things are very hard for Jedi. Taking inspiration from Rogue One‘s visuals and atmosphere, Obi-Wan Kenobi will not look like any of the other main Episodes in the series.
Innovations in Technology and the John Williams scores helped shape Obi-Wan Kenobi
Ewan McGregor noted just how different making this series was compared to the prequels which were heavily reliant on blue and green screen on set. McGregor even noted how some cameras used on Attack of the Clones were so loud, they had to rerecord every single line of dialogue for the entire movie. Deborah Chow lauded George Lucas’ pioneering uses of tech on the prequels which led to these series becoming a reality. The Stagecraft technology used on The Mandalorian was very immersive for the actors feeling like they were in the various locales of the series. Chow also played John Williams’ iconic score during production to help get the characters into the scene which helped everyone feel like they were in Star Wars.
Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen were excited to reunite on screen
When Deborah Chow started developing the story for Obi-Wan Kenobi, they knew they needed to bring back Hayden Christensen as Anakin/Darth Vader. It was natural to bring him back to continue the relationship between Anakin and Obi-Wan. Ewan McGregor and Hayden grew close during production of the prequels which were shot in Australia. Being far from home and sharing so much screen time, the pair became good friends. Over the years, they lost touch but acting together for this series felt like a time warp and took them all the way back to twenty years ago.
The actors were all very excited for fans to finally see Obi-Wan Kenobi hit screens next week and know that fans who have been waiting for Ewan McGregor’s return will be very happy to see this show. From the fight scene choreography being rooted in the prequels as well as a darker, edgier tone compared to what we have seen so far, Obi-Wan Kenobi is bound to be one of the best Star Wars productions in a long time.
Obi-Wan Kenobi premieres on May 27th on Disney+.