Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi Director Addresses How Series Impacts Franchise’s Canon

Whether they be movies, TV series, novels, or comic books, new stories in the galaxy far, far away have changed the ways in which the original trilogy of Star Wars films has been interpreted, as background information has recontextualized even the most minor of details. With the upcoming Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi taking place between the prequel trilogy and original trilogy, there are a number of opportunities to fill in the gaps of the title character’s history without contradicting details we already knew about his character, with director Deborah Chow recently detailing how she found the right balance of offering new information without altering the events of the original films. Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi debuts on Disney+ on May 27th.

“It was definitely something we were very mindful of,” Chow explained to Entertainment Weekly. “And for me also taking on [George Lucas’] legacy, it’s an honor to take these characters and be able to tell a new story with them. So I wanted to be very respectful to what exists and not change anything that George intended originally or anything like that.”

The outlet pointed out how two lines from Star Wars: A New Hope, in particular, will now likely take on new significance after this series. In that film, Darth Vader shares, “I sense something. A presence I’ve not felt since…” and later confesses, “When I left you, I was but the learner. Now I am the master.” Since the release of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, fans have interpreted these lines to reflect the showdown between Obi-Wan and Anakin on Mustafar, though they will now likely be references to events that happen in the new TV series.

“It’s fun. It’s very clever how all these threads are created,” star Ewan McGregor pointed out. “It’s like working backwards and forwards at the same time for the writers and for Deborah.”

While some of the connective storytelling threads will be definitive, Chow pointed out there will still be some ambiguous elements that will be left up to audiences to interpret.

“Obviously there is room for interpretation here,” the filmmaker pointed out. “And telling [the story] that they did have these 20 years, and obviously something happened in these 20 years, and that there are some things from our series where there’s going to be a little bit more room for interpretation on.”

Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi debuts on Disney+ on May 27th.

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