Though the look back at Obi-Wan Kenobi panel at Star Wars Celebration didn’t have any news about a second season of the show, it did give fans in attendance a new found appreciation for what the show meant to the cast and crew who worked on it.
Ewan McGregor did mention that he wanted to do more, and you understand why after hearing him talk about his experiences on the show. For example, the first time he watched the final episode, when his character says goodbye to Princess Leia (Vivien Lyra Blair), he admitted to crying uncontrollably. He and co-star Hayden Christensen also talked aboutthat hugely impactful scene where Kenobi and Darth Vader finally show down, with Obi-Wan cracking Vader’s mask, and what it meant to both of them.
During the panel, which included not just McGregor, Christensen and Blair, but also showrunner Deborah Chow and Indira Varma, each panel member played a scene that meant a lot to them. For McGregor it was that Leia scene. And for Christensen, it was the Vader scene. After it played, he and McGregor got up and hugged each other before talking about what it meant to them.
“Within the context of the saga it’s just a great bit of Star Wars,” Christensen said. “And a really important scene. Not just the tragedy of the character Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader but the tragedy of the relationship between Anakin and Obi-Wan, And Deborah, I can’t thank you enough. The way it was scripted, the way the whole thing came together on the day…and so much of why that scene works is Ewan’s performance and the heartbreak that you experience. And you get to understand the duality a little bit better and that struggle of identity. I’m just very very proud of that scene.”
“There’s something about the scene that surprised us both when we shot it,” McGregor added. “About how emotional it became. It didn’t necessarily feel that way on the page. It had something to do with us. We met each other a long time ago in Australia doing Episode II and [Hayden was] a young, young, young actor and our lives have happened between then and now. There was something about the experience of working together again because it’s just, like, we just love each other you know? And hadn’t seen each other for such a long time. And the moment of shooting it, all of that was alive in the scene and that’s beautiful when that happens. It’s such a wonderful experience and certainly that’s what it feels like up there.”
The take away of the panel, besides how much everyone involved in Obi-Wan Kenobi loved it, was that whether fans liked the series as a whole or not, there’s no denying there are moments across the series that definitely got things right. Like Obi-Wan Kenobi defeating Darth Vader.
Watch the scene in question over on Disney+.
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