Review: ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi: A Jedi’s Return’ Depicts the Emotional Journey Making the Show, But Could Have Gone Deeper

With all eyes now set on Andor, the next Star Wars live-action series for Disney Plus, the release of Obi-Wan Kenobi seems like a lifetime ago. But as we know, the show wrapped its six-episode run on the platform less than three months ago. Following the trend started by The Mandalorian, and followed up by The Book of Boba Fett earlier this year, Lucasfilm has produced a behind-the-scenes, hour-long documentary on the making of the series, that is now streaming on Disney Plus. Here is my review.

 

It is titled Obi-Wan Kenobi: A Jedi’s Return, and depicts some of the key moments of the series’ production, leading up to its release during Star Wars Celebration in May 2022. Featuring a lot of its star Ewan McGregor and director Deborah Chow, the series provides insight into the thought process behind the story of the series. Ultimately, for me, it feels like a longer, more expensive, and more detailed version of those behind-the-scenes videos Lucasfilm released as part of the marketing campaign.

 

Warning: Minor spoilers ahead for Obi-Wan Kenobi: A Jedi’s Return

 

Obi-Wan Kenobi

 

Going in, you can pretty much predict everything they are going to say if you followed those videos — Deborah Chow felt a huge responsibility to continue on with the story of this legacy character, but she’s a huge Star Wars fan so she couldn’t turn it down; Ewan McGregor was so happy to be back and reunite with his long-time friend Hayden Christensen; he, and the rest of the cast, are thrilled to be working with Deborah Chow, etc. And that is, pretty much, it. Or is it?

 

One of my favorite aspects of these behind-the-scenes looks at a series or a movie is listening to the creators talk about their vision for the project in question. There is a reason why every actor that has publicly talked about Deborah Chow is so happy with her vision for the series and her directorial skills. I would love to watch a director’s commentary on the series, with Chow walking us through every decision she and the writers made. Because, even though we might disagree with some of the decisions, or think that they didn’t ultimately work, I am fascinated by the thought process behind them.

 

Chow defended the idea of having Leia be the most important sibling on the show, as we’ve already had a lot of Luke Skywalker, but not that much of Princess Leia as front and center. She is as important to the story as Luke is, and it was time for her to shine. Vivien Lyra Blair was an excellent choice to play the part, and one of the highlights of the documentary for me was that she apparently was introduced to Star Wars through the books, which is something I certainly haven’t seen before. She was adorable in the series, and seeing her work with Deborah Chow was very sweet.

 

Obi-Wan Kenobi

 

We knew going into Obi-Wan Kenobi that this was a very emotional moment for both McGregor and Christensen, who would be reuniting on set after 18 years. But as the old filmmaking rule says, “show, don’t tell.” We’ve been hearing about this for a long time, but to finally see two hug it out during Hayden’s first day on set was cathartic, to say the least. Just the lead-up to it, when it is said that they were trying to send Ewan home, as he was done for the day, but he insisted on staying to see Hayden on his first day, and then Hayden yelling “OBI-WAN”, almost put a tear in my eye. That moment was pretty much everything I wanted out of the doc, and they pulled it off.

 

Another major plus for me was seeing Liam Neeson again. Of course, we all knew he was gonna be in Obi-Wan Kenobi, and most of us probably expected to see him in the documentary, but there’s more to it. While we were very quick to call him a liar multiple times last year when he repeatedly said he wouldn’t be in the series, and we all knew it was some of his worst acting to date, I certainly didn’t realize exactly why it was so obvious. As seen in his short interview in the documentary, Neeson was sold by Deborah Chow’s pitch, and was not only instantly on board, but excited about coming back. Let’s remember that Neeson loved his experience as Qui-Gon in The Phantom Menace, and has been back to voice the character multiple times (in The Clone Wars, The Rise of Skywalker, and coming up, in Tales of the Jedi). So putting on the cape again was probably something he was very excited about doing, and my heart just melted with that grin on his face when he talks about coming back.

 

Obi-Wan Kenobi

 

I was mostly satisfied with everything they included in Obi-Wan Kenobi: A Jedi’s Return, but I must say that I was very disappointed in some of the things they left out. For starters, a glaring omission for me was the voice of Darth Vader. This was another box I thought the documentary definitely should check, and they didn’t even address it. Of course, James Earl Jones was credited as the voice of the character, but we also know that they used the Respeecher software that was used for Luke Skywalker on The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett; we just don’t know to what extent. Was James Earl Jones involved in any capacity, or did they just feed old lines of Darth Vader to the AI to produce new ones, and they simply credited James Earl Jones? The voice worked great in the series, and the fact that they didn’t even bring up his name makes me think that the correct answer is the former.

 

For instance, Ian McDiarmid had a thirty-second cameo in the last episode, and he appeared in the doc. (In that segment they also confirmed what many suspected, that it was done secretly, with Deborah Chow not even there; it could have very well been done in his bathroom with a cloak on.) And while we’re at it, I was very surprised to see they did at least some digital de-aging on Hayden and Ewan for the flashback scene in the fifth episode. I was convinced that was not the case after watching the episode, and I guess we can now call it some of the worst de-aging to date.

 

 

Moving on to the last episode, I knew that this was a long shot, but I was hoping they would address the (arguably silly) subplot of Reva going after young Luke. Those sequences felt a bit out of place in the episode, and I always thought there could be some truth to the rumors that Reva’s arc was repurposed in post-production, as she was originally going to die. There is some footage of the filming of those scenes, but even when Deborah Chow addresses her arc, she doesn’t mention the conclusion of her journey. I was hoping the documentary would give us confirmation of what happened there, either way.

 

I did love Deborah Chow saying how hard it is to play a dark-side character. I’ve never been a fan of the “playing a bad guy is so much fun,” and I guess until today I didn’t know how to articulate why. But Chow said it best: it is a very bleak place to take your mind, and to do it right, you have to be consumed by fear and anger for many hours a day.

 

 

The bottom line for me is that I enjoyed most of what was put into the documentary, but I wish they would have gone deeper into some aspects. We knew going in that this was a very emotional experience for everyone involved, and I appreciate them expressing that so in the years ahead, viewers remain aware of that context, but I wish they would have explored the making of the show further.

 

Obi-Wan Kenobi: A Jedi’s Return is now streaming on Disney Plus. Also, don’t tune out as the credits start to roll, especially if you attended Star Wars Celebration!

 

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Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as movies from Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.

Miguel Fernandez

Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as movies from Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.

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