OBI-WAN KENOBI Director Discusses the Show and Says the Final Episode Was Submitted for Emmy Consideration

Deborah Chow, the director of Lucasfilm’s Obi-Wan Kenobi, was recently a guest on the Crew Call podcast to talk about working on the series and the challenges that came along with it.

The Kenobi project was initially planned as a film trilogy, and it went through “numerous iterations” and passed through multiple hands of talent before landing in the lab of Chow. The initial script for the film was written by Stuart Beattie, and he previously shared details on his version of the story, which sounded so much better than what we got.

Chow explains that from the beginning Kenobi was always conceived as “one big story,” and added that this was “a character journey for Obi-Wan.” To make sure they captured complex qualities of Obi-Wan in the aftermath of Order 66, there was a lot of focus put on Revenge of the Sith when developing the series.

Because the series was planned as one big story, it made sense for Lucasfilm to hire one director to carry the story all the way through. It makes sense. I just wish the script would have been a lot better. A lot of fans think the series ended up being a complete mess by the end of it. But, that didn’t stop Disney from submitting it for Emmy consideration.

Yep, Chow revealed that they were submitting the finale episode for Emmy consideration. She went on to talk about the heart of the series, saying: “The heart of the show is always going to be the scene between Hayden and Ewan with the cracked mask. That was everything the show was building to.”

She also talked about the moments with young Leia, saying that “the new journey” that Kenobi set the characters on was really important for her to set up.

Chow previously compared the tone of the series to other films such as Joker and Logan, explaining: "I think I was the most excited about getting the opportunity to do a character-driven story, in a similar way – it's a different tone – but something like Joker or Logan, where you take one character out of a big franchise and then you really have the time and you go a lot deeper with the character. So, that to me seemed really exciting to get to do in Star Wars."

Chow also discusses Obi-Wan’s journey in the series saying, "Obi-Wan’s going on a journey. There's going to be different people that come into his life. One of the things I was trying to do with this series was to have the legacy, and who is important in Obi-Wan's life, and to also have some new characters. So it's going to be a mixture of the two. But I do think there are some surprises to come. I hope."

The series starred Ewan McGregor, Hayden Christensen as Darth Vader, and Moses Ingram plays the galaxy's newest villain Reva. Rupert Friend is also in the series and plays the Grand Inquisitor, while Sung Kang plays the Fifth Brother. Joel Edgerton, Bonnie Piesse, Kumail Nanjiani, Indira Varma, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Simone Kessell, and Benny Safdie also star.

Now that some time had passed since the series has come to an end, what do you think about it?