17 years later after his last appearance as a Jedi Knight in Revenge of the SithEwan McGregor reprises his role as Obi-Wan Kenobi – first played by Alec Guinness – in this new eponymous mini-series in six episodes. Chronologically, it takes place ten years after the 3rd opus of Star Wars, between the events of the prequels and the first film of the franchise imagined by George Lucas, released in 1977. Obi-Wan failed to educate Anakin, who crossed over to the other side of the force and became Darth Vader. Now hunted by the forces of evil, Obi-Wan Kenobi watches Anakin’s son, the future Luke Skywalker, grow from afar.
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Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen, who played Anakin Skywalker at his side, are therefore back in front of the camera to embody these heroes inscribed in the pantheon of “pop culture”. Behind the camera, Deborah Chow directed the entire series. She unveils this new series from the Star Wars universe to franceinfo.
franceinfo: 17 years after the release of Revenge of the Sith, Ewan McGregor resumes his role as Jedi. What to expect?
Deborah Chow: For us, this is a new story. We move forward in the timeline. One of the most exciting things is that, you know, we’re going back to characters that are obviously very iconic and that everyone knows and are very familiar with. But we return to a different period of their lives.
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Be careful not to betray the characters…
That was definitely the biggest challenge in this series, because we have these legacy characters. We are in the middle of two trilogies. So for the most part, we’ve been telling the second act of their stories, which is always hard to tell anyway.
How did the long-awaited laser fight scenes unfold?
Ewan is so natural that, you know, we barely used his understudy. It’s almost him who turns everything he does. It requires a lot of training, choreography. Physically on set, we have a whole host of different laser swords, some for stunts, some for heroes. So there are a number of different lightsabers. And then, to use them, we obviously need interactive light on set. So we had different blade lengths depending on what we needed. So yes, it was a big job. There really are a lot of lightsabers.
If the series takes up the visual universe of Star Wars and its western side, were you able to add your personal touch?
For me, it’s something that I really like in Star Wars, the discovery of new planets and new worlds. And visually, I love that as a director. It gives me such an opportunity to create another universe within this galaxy. What we really wanted was to tell a very personal and emotional story, very rooted in Obi-Wan Kenobi. It’s his story.
The first two episodes ofObi-Wan Kenobi will be available on Disney+ from May 27.