Sound Designers Behind ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ Break Down the Audio In Series’ Climactic Showdown
Bonnie Wild and Matthew Wood, sound designers behind Obi-Wan Kenobi, spoke to Variety about the battle between Obi-Wan and Darth Vader at the end of the series and what it was like creating the audio for that momentous scene. Some of the highlights from the discussion include how the team created Darth Vader’s voice when his helmet shattered and how they wanted to honor the legacy of the Star Wars soundscape.
In the Obi-Wan Kenobi behind-the-scenes video produced by Variety (provided above), Matthew Wood describes how they made Vader’s voice when part of his face is exposed by the cracked helmet. When describing the goal of that scene, Wood emphasized the humanity of the moment and the challenge of mixing Hayden’s voice with the robotic sounds of Darth Vader:
“We did leave an extra set of time just to work on this one scene. It’s a moment where you’re seeing the face of Hayden Christensen through the mask for the first time other than when it was put on him in Revenge of the Sith …
We really wanted to make sure Hayden Christensen’s performance came through from the day. So we had that very fragile, intimate scene there. But then, in the meantime, we also had the voice of James Earl Jones come through. So we tried a really nice blend of those two moments and we found parts where we could start the sentence off with Hayden, but end it with James.”
Wood also emphasized how the team worked on making sure Darth Vader’s breathing noise sounds fragile and broken at the end of the fight. While Darth Vader’s broken breathing sounds were created previously for Return of the Jedi, they also needed to be updated for newer technology:
“We always have to update [the sounds] for the soundstage of today. Disney Plus has an Atmos track, and Bonnie [Wild] and the mix crews [updated] that together.
You’ll have an instance where something we might have touched on before, like Vader having trouble breathing, we did that in Return of the Jedi, but certainly, this particular show has a whole different set of colors to fill in for that particular moment …
We really tried to make the cracked mask sound scary, like it was starting to malfunction to the point where his body is not going to function anymore. So Obi-Wan is effectively leaving him for dead again.”
Bonnie Wild also elaborated on the unique opportunity and challenges of creating sounds for Star Wars. Wild describes it as requiring a delicate sense of “balance:”
“The exciting thing about the sounds of Star Wars is that it’s always about the blend and the balance. It’s almost like with every action sequence, we have to consider who has the upper hand in each moment.”
Matthew Wood also echoed similar sentiments about how the audio team wanted to preserve and uphold the work done by those from the past:
“We want to make sure we honor what’s come before us and the legacy of Ben Burtt and what he’s created. And everyone is very respectful of that material. When you hear these things — the sound and the music — it’s kind of like the subconscious glue that holds Star Wars together.”
Both Bonnie Wild and Matthew Wood are nominated for Emmys for their work not only on Obi-Wan Kenobi, but also for season 3 of The Mandalorian. They have now also finished work on Ahsoka.
Born and raised in Hawaii, Jay Goodearl runs the YouTube Gaming channel “Good Games, Dude” His channel aims to open up video games to beginners and immediate players and help them understand what makes games the art form that it is.
