Obi-Wan Kenobi writer says they all take canon "very, very seriously"
Fans concerned about the Obi-Wan/Leia relationship can breathe easy, says executive producer Joby Howard
Calm down, Star Wars fans: Obi-Wan Kenobi is going to address all your grievances. A series featuring some of the most major characters in the franchise during a previously unexplored time period was bound to shake things up, but writer and executive producer Joby Harold promised Entertainment Weekly that all the pieces will fit into the Star Wars puzzle in the end.
One of the major complaints about the show so far is that Obi-Wan’s (Ewan McGregor) bond with young Leia (Vivien Lyra Blair) flies in the face of older Leia’s (Carrie Fisher) iconic message in A New Hope, where she seems to introduce herself and ask for Obi-Wan’s help.
“We talked about it a lot,” Harold said of this critical piece of Star Wars lore. “And we’re looking forward to the show airing in its entirety so that hopefully all questions are answered fully. So it’s tricky to field some of those questions mid-process. But yes, all I can say is we’re very cognizant of that, and of canon. And it’s a massive team, Lucasfilm, so we’re all very aware of all the choices that are being made.”
Does young Leia hit her head and forget all her youthful adventures? Is she mind wiped? (Sorry, that’s Men In Black.) Only time will tell. But the Leia/Obi-Wan relationship isn’t the only bit of muddled canon: fans also raised eyebrows when Reva (Moses Ingram) appears to kill the Grand Inquisitor (Rupert Friend), a character who plays a crucial role in the animated series Star Wars Rebels (which takes place years after Obi-Wan).
“It will be so much easier to speak to these things once we’ve aired everything,” Harold reiterated to EW. “But as I said before, we very much take canon very, very seriously. And there are many, many people behind the scenes who prioritize that. So we have it in mind, and by the time everything has concluded, all things should be in place.”
So instead of complaining about disrupted canon, now’s the time to theorize just how these elements will fall into place by the end of Obi-Wan. Who’s got money on a Men In Black mind wipe?