Star Wars has found new life on Disney+ thanks to shows like The Mandalorian. While fans were left with mixed feelings over The Book of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi looks to continue this new era of the franchise with a bang. The limited series is premiering in May and one of the most exciting elements of this upcoming show will be seeing Hayden Christensen returning to the franchise as Darth Vader. Now, in an exclusive interview with Entertainment Weekly, director Deborah Chow has talked about this iconic villain’s return.
First Chow talked about what went behind the decision of bringing back Vader with the director 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. So really it came out of an evolution of the character for me. It wasn't just to sort of bring him back. It was really like, who means something and where are we at this point in the timeline with Vader?”
It is good to hear that Chow made the decision to bring back Vader from a place of character as it would be super easy to bring back the most popular Star Wars character just for the sake of bringing him back. Ewan McGregor’s Kenobi and Christensen’s Anakin Skywalker’s relationship/chemistry was arguably the best part of the Prequel Trilogy. Because of that, seeing that tragic dynamic expanded upon in this series is going to be exciting. When talking about working with Christensen in particular Chow said:
“He's lovely. And he's absolutely wonderful. And Canadian! So the first time I met him actually was in Toronto, and it was really nice because we sort of met up in Canada, and obviously both with people like Ewan and Hayden, they've been these characters for so long and they obviously did them in the prequels, and they've lived with this character in their lives for so long that they just know the character so well, which makes it so helpful in terms of the creative.”
She expanded upon this glowing comment by talking about Christensen on set saying:
"Obviously Hayden was going to be part of this series, and when he first came on to set for us, it definitely had a very special feeling. And it was a really interesting moment for me because you really started to see the different generations and how they connect to Star Wars and the franchise, where you have a generation that grew up with the prequels first and with Hayden. It's a totally different thing for them than a generation that grew up with the originals. And then there's younger generations with the new ones. So it felt really special bringing him back".
Christensen has gotten a lot of criticism in the past for his Prequel Trilogy performance, but in recent years he has been embraced by the Star Wars fans. Due to that, it is great to hear Chow’s excitement and love over Christensen’s role in the series. Chow finished off the interview by talking about what fans can expect from Vader in this series given that the show takes place ten years after Revenge of the Sith. She stated:
"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".
From this, it sounds like we are going to get a more raw version of Vader. It is also interesting to hear Chow talk about the parallels between Kenobi and his fallen apprentice’s journey in this series. The nostalgia-fueled trailer, which was accompanied by John Williams amazing “Duel of the Fates,” teased a dark show in an era of Star Wars where the Jedi were actively being hunted. As Chow said, both Vader and Kenobi are not in their final forms yet. Both are in their own dark place at the moment. This presents a lot of compelling potential storylines and fans of the franchise sound like they are getting the rematch of the century.
It will all go down when Obi-Wan Kenobi premieres on Disney+ May 25, 2022. That just so happens to be the 45th anniversary of A New Hope.