'Obi-Wan Kenobi' Director Dishes On Working With Ewan McGregor

The director behind "Obi-Wan Kenobi," Deborah Chow, is opening up about the struggles the Jedi are going to face when the series hits Disney+ on May 27.

Emmy-award-winning actor Ewan McGregor is reprising his role as the titular Obi-Wan Kenobi from the prequel series. Also reprising his role as Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader is Hayden Christensen.

Director Deborah Chow sat down with Entertainment Weekly to discuss what fans can expect following Kenobi and Anakin's duel on Mustafar.

At the end of "Revenge of the Sith," Kenobi watched his former apprentice fall to the dark side.

"At this point, both for him and for the galaxy, it's quite a dark period," Chow said of Kenobi's mental state. "And that actually made it really interesting to be telling a story in this period."

"It's a time when the Empire's ascending, it's post Order 66. So most of the Jedi have been killed," she explained. "A lot of them are being hunted by the Inquisitors. So it's a very dark time to be a Jedi and most of them are hiding or dead."

"So for him at this point 10 years later, we're dealing with post Order 66 after Anakin, who he believes he killed, and then all his friends — everybody sort of gone or hiding," she added. "So it's a tough period for Obi-Wan."

In terms of the Inquisitors, Chow explained that they had their origins in the Star Wars animated cartoon "Rebels."

"Obviously, they're from Rebels, and it was really exciting to get to do them for the first time in live action," Chow explained. "They're established characters and whatnot, so we brought them into the show and it's largely because they were out there."

For fans unfamiliar with "Rebels," Chow described them as "Jedi hunters, so they're under Vader and Palpatine, and they're basically dark side wielders that their primary purpose is to hunt down Jedi."

Chow, who has previous directed episodes of the first Disney+ Star Wars live-action series "The Mandalorian," admitted that it can be difficult keeping elements of the franchise consistent through films, TV shows, comics, books, and more.

"I think for me having gone through The Mandalorian — and thank goodness I did — that was really my introduction to the responsibility to this universe and how to tell stories in this galaxy," Chow said of her responsibility. "So, it was so helpful having gone through that already before taking this one on."

"But there really is a responsibility to it," she continued. "You want to respect the canon, but you also want to have your voice in the canon, and you don't want to just retread or do the same thing again."

"So there were definitely people that were extremely helpful. Lucasfilm has a great team that helps support that," she added. "But I would say Dave Filoni was very pivotal for me, both in terms of The Mandalorian and in terms of the Star Wars of it all, as well as Jon Favreau. But Dave also was a touchstone, and remains a touchstone for me for this series. Anytime I have a question about canon, I go to him."

In addition to working with Favreau and Filoni, Chow also said that it was "wonderful" to get a chance to work with "Halston" star Ewan McGregor.

"For me, he was honestly more than an actor," she explained. "He was a real creative partner in the show and he really is just sort of seamless to the character. There are just some actors and roles where there's just such a meshing where they are one, and that's what it felt like for me."

"Obi-Wan Kenobi" was originally supposed to be released on May 25, exactly 45 years after the very first Star Wars film, "A New Hope," debuted in theaters. However, Disney decided to delay the premiere by two days to coincide with the annual fan event Star Wars Celebration, which is being held in Anaheim, California this year.

As a result, two episodes of the six-episode limited series will be available to stream on Friday, May 27, exclusively on Disney+.