The new Star Wars miniseries Obi-Wan Kenobi premiered on Disney+ on May 27. In the show’s second episode, Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) finds out that Anakin Skywalker is still alive as Darth Vader (Hayden Christensen). In an interview with TheWrap, Obi-Wan Kenobi writer Joby Harold defended the choice to have Obi-Wan discover Darth Vader is still alive following the events of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith.
[Spoiler Alert: This article contains spoilers for the first season of Obi-Wan Kenobi.]
Joby Harold thinks it’s ‘within canon’ that Obi-Wan Kenobi would not know about Darth Vader
Before Obi-Wan Kenobi premiered on Disney+, some Star Wars fans made the assumption that Obi-Wan always knew that Darth Vader survived the events on Mustafar.
However, Obi-Wan Kenobi makes it clear that Obi-Wan spent 10 years thinking that he killed Anakin in their battle. In the show’s second episode, the Jedi learns from Reva Sevander (Moses Ingram) that Anakin survived and continued on as Darth Vader.
In an interview with TheWrap, Harold explained that Obi-Wan making this discovery is “within canon” of the Star Wars universe.
“… the great piece of storytelling you can use is getting to Ewan play the moment of realization that that which haunts him is still alive,” said Harold. “And what does that mean for him? There were many avenues that I could take him down, all of which hopefully are good opportunities to tease out story as we continue. But it all comes down to, is it viable within canon to play that card? Which it was.”
The ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ writer originally did not think to include this story
Speaking with TheWrap, Harold revealed that the creative team for Obi-Wan Kenobi had to ask themselves lots of questions while writing the series. Initially, Harold did not think about Obi-Wan not knowing about Darth Vader‘s actual fate.
The writer told TheWrap:
“That was actually not something I pitched originally. That was something I discovered along the way, and sort of had to confirm with Pablo [Hidalgo] and really think, ‘Hold on a second, what does he actually know? Does he know the moniker Vader? What would that mean? Can he associate the two? What was he cognizant of? How isolated is he? Where’s Vader at that time? Where’s his reputation and how well known is he?’ and all those pieces of the puzzle.”
How the ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ team keeps things in ‘canon’ with past ‘Star Wars’ releases
When it comes to making Star Wars projects, creators must make sure that new releases do not retcon previous installments in the franchise. Because of this, Harold and other Obi-Wan Kenobi writers and producers were careful about what was included in the show.
“In regards to canon and the things you can do and the things you can’t do, very, very quickly you find out what’s on the table and what isn’t. Everything’s an email or a phone call away,” Harold told TheWrap.
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