The build to Obi-Wan Kenobi cranked up the hype levels to maximum, promising a new adventure with two of the most iconic Star Wars characters ever. In the end, results were mixed: we can’t pick holes in Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen’s performances, but there were justified criticisms about VFX, story pacing, and some very odd writing decisions.
Now, we may have an inkling as to why things felt off. Obi-Wan Kenobi production designer Todd Cherniawsky has given an illuminating interview with Dork Forces on the highly pressured shooting schedule. He points out that the show had a roughly 100-day shoot with an enormous variety of sets.
“So that means every day, you have to design, build, paint, light, and finish a set. Now obviously, that’s not the way it works, ’cause you have ’til the end of the schedule. But when you start actually putting it up on the calendar, it’s frightening at the level of which you have to check these boxes.”
Working with child actor Vivien Lyra Blair as Leia also comes with restrictions as she can only be on set for a certain amount of time each day:
“We had a handful of very long days, but for the most part, we always kept it to 12 hours. When working with a child, you know, Vivien has to be in and out of set time within a very specific window… So we can start the day early, work with Ewan in the morning and a handful of other actors, bring Vivien in, shoot her out, and then continue. Or start with her first thing in the morning when she’s really fresh and bright and well-rested.”
Many Star Wars fans have noticed that certain aspects of these shows appear rushed, which is particularly annoying as Disney clearly has enough money, resources, and talent to do this right if they wanted to. There’s no reason why this one needed to premiere on a specific date, so why not ease the pressure on Obi-Wan‘s high-stress shoot and let the creatives do their job without hard deadlines ticking over them?
Obi-Wan Kenobi had everything it needed to be a truly standout project, but corners were cut at various points, and the series suffered for it. However, it’s perhaps worth remembering that Disney and Lucasfilm had already slammed the brakes on the first incarnation of the project back in January 2020 before retooling it into its eventual form, so maybe they simply wanted to get it out.
Even so, maybe Lucasfilm should have kept in mind that (to paraphrase Super Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto) a delayed show is eventually good, but a rushed show is forever bad.
Obi-Wan Kenobi is now streaming on Disney Plus.