‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ Director Deborah Chow On Series Journey, If There’s More [Podcast] – Deadline

Obi-Wan Kenobi is one of the few Star Wars Disney+ series that pays direct homage to the original George Lucas film canon, versus series such as The Mandalorian ,which heavily incorporate the animated lore created by Dave Filoni.

Episodic director and EP Deborah Chow had the daunting task of taking up the baton left behind by Lucas in the 2005 Star Wars movie Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, stylistically and story wise, to tell the continuing tale of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker-turned-Darth Vader and the young twins Leia and Luke.

Chow stepped into the series to direct all six episodes after another director vacated. She acknowledges that the series was originally hatched as a stand-alone movie on the latest episode of Crew Call.

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Chow’s biggest hurdle in the entire series was shooting during the thick of Covid — before there was a vaccine. Andor originally was set to film in London but wound up being shot across the street from The Mandalorian‘s soundstages in Los Angeles.

“It was pretty intense,” says Chow, who did all her pre-production prep from Toronto. She didn’t meet her key creative department heads in-person until filming commenced.

“Anything with background was always stressful because we had little Leia (Vivien Lyra Blair) running around,” Chow tells us. However, “we didn’t get shut down.”

We talk with Chow about Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen taking up their characters more than a decade later and why she chose the final episode “Part VI” as her Emmy submission.

As far as more Obi-Wan Kenobi?

“This was conceived as a limited series; it is closed,” says Chow.

However, “There’s 10 more years before New Hope, so never say never.”