The writer of the Disney Plus sci-fi series Obi-Wan Kenobi, Joby Harold, has given an update on where the new entry in a galaxy far far away falls in the Star Wars timeline. In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Harold clarified that he views the show as Episode 3.5 – meaning it is the interval between the Star Wars movies Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope.
Obi-Wan Kenobi takes place after the events of the 2005 prequel movie Revenge of the Sith, and has currently made fans of the IP both delighted and concerned with its continuity. With its premiere episode setting viewership records on Disney Plus, the series follows Ewan McGregor watching over the Skywalker children. But despite the popular reception, you can’t please everyone, and many fans have questioned the choice to see the Jedi master duel against Darth Vader – who many believed he shouldn’t have seen again until the events of A New Hope kicked off.
However, Harold is adamant that the series is the bridge between the prequel and original trilogies and has come forward to justify all the series’ creative decisions so far. “I have completely focused on [Obi-Wan Kenobi] being Episode 3.5,” he says. “Between the original trilogy and the prequels, as it had to marry the storytelling choices between those two trilogies.”
“Ultimately, I’m an original trilogy kid; that’s what I love,” he states. “And that’s the calm and the precision with which we tried to focus this show. We tried to echo that mythic-feeling storytelling.”
The writer clarified how he went about crafting the story for Obi-Wan Kenobi, and how the series was an important step for the character’s arc to contextualise his attitude towards Vader in the original science fiction movies.
“We all know where we’re going in the show. That’s not surprising to anybody, but there is undeniably a hole in the storytelling before we get to Sir Alec Guinness’ zen-like calm warrior monk,” Harold explained. “The fight between him and Vader at the end of A New Hope has a calm to it. It almost feels like everybody knows their positions there, with the things they say and with the way in which Obi-Wan resolves that fight.”
“That’s very different from Mustafar at the end of Revenge of the Sith, so that chunk of storytelling felt like an opportunity, not something we were limited by,” he continued. “So, I just ran towards that idea, and anything you can do in between those two things that’s surprising, interesting and goes against expectations is an opportunity as long as you’re not violating canon.”
Obi-Wan Kenobi is now available to stream exclusively on Disney Plus. For more Force based content, here is everything we know about The Mandalorian season 3.