With Obi-Wan Kenobi series now streaming on Disney+, I got to speak with director Deborah Chow about helming the newest Star Wars series. During the interview, Chow talked about how she prepped to make the series, how a Sideshow Collectibles Obi-Wan status gave her inspiration, why she’s so excited for fans to see the final episode, what it was like crafting the lighsaber fights and how fans will see a “whole new set of lightsabers and different actions that we haven't seen in live action” because of the Inquisitors. In addition, she talked about the lack of deleted scenes, how every episode is under an hour, and a lot more.
Obi-Wan Kenobi is set ten years after Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith and also stars Hayden Christensen as Darth Vader. In addition, the cast is made up of Joel Edgerton, Moses Ingram (Inquisitor Reva), Bonnie Piesse, Kumail Nanjiani, Indira Varma, Rupert Friend, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Sung Kang, Simone Kessell and Benny Safdie.
The series premieres exclusively on Disney+ on Friday, May 27, with the first two episodes. Following the premiere, the series will stream weekly on Wednesdays, until the finale on Wednesday, June 22.
Watch what she had to say in the player above, or you can read our conversation below.
COLLIDER: I could not be more excited for your series. Just want to start with that. Just so amped up for this one.
DEBORAH CHOW: Thank you.
If someone has actually never seen any Star Wars, can they watch this series or do you want to recommend the things they need to watch to get ready for it?
CHOW: You know, that's an interesting question. I would definitely say that would help if you've seen the prequels. So I think if you do have time to watch one thing, the prequels would certainly be a help in understanding the show. It's tricky because obviously we are so in the middle of two trilogies with these big legacy characters, but as much as possible, Joby, who's the writer and I, when we were doing the development, we really were trying to make sure that we'd always do a reality check to go, "If we take the Star Wars out of this, does this still work, just on a human level?" I guess if you didn't know anything at all about Star Wars, which feels like it'd be hard to find a person who maybe doesn't know anything, I think you could still watch it. You may not get every single reference or understand everything, but I think hopefully it still works just on a human level.
How close did Darth Maul come to being in the series?
CHOW: From the time that I've been involved, honestly, Darth Maul has never actually been part of the conversation. So I'm not sure if it was in previous ... I've never seen it actually in any iteration that I've been involved with.
I'm assuming you must have spent a lot of time researching and learning everything you could learn. Was there one thing in particular that you found that you're like, "Oh my God, this is cool, and this is going in the series."
CHOW: It's interesting because I'd obviously done a lot of, gone pretty deep for Mandalorian, but then I went very deep for Kenobi and I really looked at a lot of the stuff in the Extended Universe and especially connected to stuff that we might touch on. There's a lot of great stuff out there, but I think one thing that was really quite meaningful, was there's a statue of Kenobi during this period, a Sideshow statue that it really sort of felt visually like it encapsulated what the feel of the character was at this moment. And that actually became quite a reference that I would continue to go back and look at visually.
Was it an older statue?
CHOW: It was an older statue. Yeah. I don't have the exact name, but it's quite a beautiful statue. So, it just sort of had the feel and so much as what you're trying to do as a filmmaker is you're trying to, "What does this feel like? What's the tone of this series?" And it felt like it came close.
The series is six episodes. And the thing about Disney+ is some series are 30 minutes and some series are an hour. How long are the episodes?
CHOW: It's definitely a range and it depends on the story being told, I think with each episode. So it ranges per episode, but everything's under an hour.
When it's all said and done, how long is it? Do you know, is it four hours? Is it five hours?
CHOW: I don't even know. I could do the math, but I think maybe it would be better if we waited until after the show came out to get into statistics.
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Did you end up with a lot of deleted scenes or is it one of these things where it all went on the screen?
CHOW: It's interesting, almost everything was on the screen. There was very little actually that got cut. Obviously we were shooting this through COVID and it is quite an ambitious project. So it was kind of great actually at the end of the day that the vast majority of what we shot actually is on screen.
Which episode of the six are you really amped up for fans to see?
CHOW: It's interesting, like every episode, especially after you work on something so long, they all have sort of a place in your heart, but I think the final episode, because you bring everything together in the final episode. I'm excited for the fans to get there and see the whole journey come to its end.
Everyone loves the lightsaber fights in Star Wars. What is it like actually trying to bring cool lightsaber fights to your series? And I'm curious if you could talk a little bit about the collaboration with whoever your second unit director was. What is that relationship like? How much were you trying to do it?
CHOW: For action, I truly love doing action and obviously, I had done a bunch on Mandalorian, but it was mostly blaster fire. So it was a lot of shootouts. And then all of a sudden I'm going into a lot of lightsaber stuff. But I mean, for me, honestly, for this series, I tried to do the vast majority of it because it's something I feel actually is very important to do. I did have an amazing stunt coordinator, Joe Doserro who very much was with me. And we creatively collaborated on the choreography and got there and he definitely helped out on the second unit. But I think the thing for me that's always made action feel the strongest, is when it comes out of character and that it's not just action for action's sake. So it's something that I feel is quite important of making sure that the character and all the emotion is there at the same time as the action and the physicality.
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Can you talk a little bit about trying to, I don't know about raising the bar…but how you wanted certain sequences to have standout moments, if you will?
CHOW: I think in terms of approaching the action, especially with the lightsaber stuff, obviously with the Inquisitors we're into a whole new set of lightsabers and different actions that we haven't seen in live action, that was pretty exciting. I will say it is far easier to spin a lightsaber in animation than it is in live action. So that was a bit of a trick, but I think just in terms of the approach on it, you want the scenes to feel very dynamic and you want to get the heart rate up and we're all excited to kind of get to do them and to see them. But at the same time, one of the things that's so interesting about it is that because of the nature of the fight and the characters, it's personal, and there is really a lot going on with this. This is not just a fight. This is two characters involved that really mean something to each other. So, that to me is always the heart of doing the best action.
I'm just going to say sincerely, I am so excited to see this series. I wish you nothing but the best.
CHOW: Thank you so much.