WARNING! Spoilers ahead for Obi-Wan Kenobi
Darth Vader’s village scene in Obi-Wan Kenobi episode 3 was originally going to be even more extreme. The latest Star Wars series, starring Ewan McGregor back in his iconic role as the titular Jedi and Hayden Christensen as Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker, debuted just over a week ago and has already completed half of its 6-episode run. Obi-Wan Kenobi picks up with McGregor’s character ten years after the events of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith; following the devastating events of Order 66, Obi-Wan is now in hiding as Darth Vader’s Jedi hunters sweep the galaxy.
One of the biggest shocks so far in Obi-Wan Kenobi is the ruthlessness of Vader in the Mapuzo village during episode 3. The apprentice knows his old Master well, which leads to the violent acts that he knows will draw Obi-Wan out of hiding. From Force-choking a father and breaking his son’s neck to dragging a woman down the street behind him, Darth Vader proves that his own interests — in this case, finding Obi-Wan — matter more than anything or anyone else in the galaxy. The Obi-Wan Kenobi moment is a step up from Vader’s infamous scene at the end of 2016’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, as that was against a military force while this is against innocent villagers.
Now, the head writer for Obi-Wan Kenobi, Joby Harold, has revealed that this Obi-Wan Kenobi scene was once even more extreme than what viewers actually witnessed. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Harold insists that it was “a thousand percent the intention” for the audience to be scared of Vader in this scene. The writer even went on to say that “It was a lot more extreme, at one point,” but “I got pulled back a little bit on that,” likely due to how violent the character and the series is allowed to be. Harold’s goal with the scene was to show Vader’s emotional struggles alongside Obi-Wan’s, as neither one of them are yet the characters first seen in Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. See Harold’s full quote below:
From a Vader point of view, we’re all living with the memory of the end of Rogue One, and how effective that was. It was very gratifying to see Vader finally be unleashed in a sequence like that, so we wanted to try to trump it if we could. It was a lot more extreme, at one point. […] I got pulled back a little bit on that. It was so important to define Vader’s anger and rage. There’s an emotionality to the choices he’s making that are a little further than we’re used to seeing with Vader. He’s pushed a little more than the Vader we know. Obi-Wan isn’t the finished article before [the original Star Wars], and we can look at Vader in the same way.
The Obi-Wan Kenobi scene truly captures this emotion in Vader as he tears through the village in search of Obi-Wan. To him at this point, everything is still very personal: The physical turmoil he suffered and continues to suffer everyday at the hands of his old Master, the resistance of the Jedi to his Dark Side path, the loss of Padmé and his children, and more. Vader is at the peak of his rage and power in Obi-Wan Kenobi, with the Galactic Empire standing as strong and present as ever. This is evident in the way he tears through this village in order to get to Obi-Wan. That scene is already plenty brutal, which makes one wonder how the more extreme version of it played out.
The stakes have now risen greatly, as Obi-Wan is currently stuck far away from Tatooine thanks to the Inquisitors’ and Vader’s ruthless hunt, as well as grave injuries from Vader’s cruel and fiery revenge. With Leia presumably in Reva’s (Moses Ingram) clutches, Obi-Wan will have to spend even more time away from Luke and the Lars homestead to focus on Anakin’s and Padmé’s other child and get her home safely. The introduction of the Path has opened the door for some familiar Force-sensitive characters to join the Obi-Wan Kenobi cast, though there could be plenty other surprises for viewers in the final 3 episodes of the series. One thing about the future of Obi-Wan Kenobi is for certain: Vader isn’t done with Obi-Wan yet.
Obi-Wan Kenobi releases new episodes Wednesdays on Disney+.
