OBI-WAN KENOBI Director Explains How Darth Vader will Be Different in The STAR WARS Series
Lucasfilm’s Obi-Wan Kenobi series is set between the events of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: A New Hope. It’s a time that hasn’t really been explored before in live-action and it’s going to be interesting to see what these characters were like between the two films. Vader was one of the key villains in Star Wars Rebels.
While fans are excited to see the return of Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan Kenobi, it’s going to be awesome to see Hayden Christensen back as the Sith Lord, Darth Vader. Director Deborah Chow, recently teased that this is going to be a different variation of the character. While talking to Entertainment Weekly, she explained:
"For us, it's very similar [to Obi-Wan] in the sense that he's in between these two trilogies. So he isn't the New Hope Vader quite yet, you know what I mean? So we are with the character sort of in the middle of this period. It is still Vader obviously, but it's a Vader that isn't quite as fully formed as A New Hope."
I imagine this version of Vader will be a bit more unhinged, ruthless, and unpredictable. Remember this is still only a few years after the events of Revenge of the Sith, so he’s still going to be in the process of figuring himself out in this new situation that he’s found himself in. I bet he’s still feeling incredibly angry at the universe and at the same time has to come to terms with the choices he’s made. Like the fact that he straight-up murdered kids.
Chow went on to explain why she wanted to bring Vader back for this series, saying:
"Honestly, for me the starting place was that I really wanted to do something that was character-based and character-driven, because that is the benefit of the limited series, is that you have more time to sort of tell a real character story. And so for me, the starting place of character is you just start and you look at who has been important to him in his life. And it's quite hard to avoid Anakin/Vader in that scenario, especially coming out of Revenge of the Sith."
The story begins 10 years after the dramatic events of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith where Obi-Wan Kenobi faced his greatest defeat—the downfall and corruption of his best friend and Jedi apprentice, Anakin Skywalker, who turned to the dark side as evil Sith Lord Darth Vader.
The series also stars Moses Ingram, Joel Edgerton, Bonnie Piesse, Kumail Nanjiani, Indira Varma, Rupert Friend, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Sung Kang, Simone Kessell, and Benny Safdie.
Obi-Wan Kenobi is directed by Deborah Chow and executive-produced by Kathleen Kennedy, Michelle Rejwan, Deborah Chow, Ewan McGregor, and Joby Harold.
Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi premieres on Disney+ on May 25th.