‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ Writer Andrew Stanton on Writing Within ‘Star Wars’ Canon
Andrew Stanton, who co-wrote the last two episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi, recently discussed the upside and the downside of writing for a Star Wars series, especially one that has to match everything else going on in canon. Stanton, a Pixar veteran who is also a big Star Wars fan, mentioned how that can sometimes result in a less compelling story.
Stanton is currently promoting the Criterion Collection release of his Pixar film Wall-E, and in an interview with io9, he was asked about the challenges of writing for a show that had to adhere to Star Wars canon. He said:
“That was the blessing and the curse of it. It’s like one, you’re geeking out that you get to type ‘Vader says’ this and ‘Kenobi says’ that. You pause and say ‘I can’t believe I’m actually getting paid to type this. I can’t believe these words may be said.’ But then another part of you, it has to go through such a rigorous like ‘Does that fit the canon?’ And I feel like it’s bittersweet. [The reason that happens is] because people care, but it also kind of doesn’t allow, sometimes, things to venture beyond where maybe they should to tell a better story. So it can sometimes really handicap what I think are better narrative options.
And so I was frustrated sometimes—not a lot— but I just felt it wasn’t as conducive to [the story]. So I love it when something like Andor is in a safe spot. And it can just do whatever the heck it wants. But I felt, you know, Joby [Harold, Obi-Wan Kenobi co-writer and executive producer], to his credit, kept the torch alive and kept trying to thread the needle so that the story wouldn’t suffer but it would please all the people that were trying to keep it in the canon. But I got some moments in there that I’m very happy with.”
For now, Stanton does not have any other Star Wars projects lined up. He has worked on the majority of Pixar’s movies over the past two decades, including their biggest hits like Finding Nemo, Wall-E, and Toy Story 3.
Obi-Wan Kenobi was pitched from the very beginning as a limited event series, and despite internal conversations about a potential second season, there is no official word on the show coming back. Ewan McGregor remained very excited about playing the character after the season finished its run, so the door is always open for more from his incarnation of the character. Hayden Christensen, who was also brought back for the series, will play Anakin Skywalker and/or Darth Vader once again in the upcoming Ahsoka series, which has either wrapped already or is about to.
Meanwhile, Andor continues to air its first season, with the final three episodes being released this month. The pipeline of Star Wars content is full, with The Bad Batch season 2 scheduled for a January 4 release and The Mandalorian season 3 coming our way in February. Stay tuned for more!
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.
