Disney is destroying Star Wars characters by the dozen – Darth Vader can’t be the next one

In a week, Obi-Wan Kenobi will start, probably the biggest Star Wars event of the year. The euphoria is huge and rightly so. This series could be as great as Rogue One: A Star Wars Story once was. Bridging the gap between Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars, both have tremendous storytelling potential.

But for all the anticipation, Obi-Wan shows just how reliable the nostalgic reflexes snap since the Disney takeover. The desire to revive the past is (allegedly) strong among fans – and Disney+ is butchering one precious old Star Wars character after another to satiate it. So it’s not surprising that a Star Wars series about Ewan McGregor’s Jedi Master also has the Rogue Luminary Darth Vader brought back. And not just for a brief appearance like in Rogue One. (Read all about the Obi-Wan series here: start, plot and characters)

Why Darth Vader’s presence in the Obi-Wan series isn’t good news

Prequel Anakin/Darth Vader Hayden Christensen is one of the main cast of the series. We’ll likely see more Vader than we’ve seen since 1983’s Return of the Jedi. But that doesn’t trigger any euphoria in me. On the contrary.

I can hardly imagine this great Star Wars mythos emerging unscathed from the series. After all we already know very much about Darth Vader, he lay on the therapy couch for three films during the prequels and took us into the depths of his soul. Obi-Wan director Deborah Chow wants to dig even deeper, she said in an interview.

We are in the middle of this phase with the character [zwischen Prequels und Original-Trilogie]. He’s obviously Vader, though not yet the fully formed version of the Star Wars character.

Sure, humans (and Star Wars characters) are complex. But do we really have to examine and understand every development step of this character? No, especially not in this case.

The Star Wars movies hid Darth Vader, and that’s a good thing

Because Darth Vader is the most sensitive Star Wars character. This occupies a scene from the second film in the franchise, The Empire Strikes Back, that stuck with me. A Death Star admiral stumbles into the villain’s private quarters and surprises him without his helmet. In the intimate moment, a bare, scarred back of the head flashes before us. I always have the uncomfortable feeling in this scene that I’m seeing something that isn’t actually meant for my eyes. Something very private, like watching Queen Elizabeth II put on her pajamas.

The scene is fantastic because she giving in to a base need: It shows a naked god (supervillains). But she only opens the door a crack and immediately slams it in our face. She is aware of the preciousness of her content.

Placement and timing had to be 100 percent right here, because you can only do a scene like the one above once, otherwise the character will be overexposed. It is no coincidence that Darth Vader’s actual screen time in the prequel film Revenge of the Sith is extremely limited. In the Anakin Skywalker to Darth Vader transformation scene we only see the broken man from a collection of timid angles. The camera keeps turning away, startled.

In other words, both the original and prequel trilogies knew that the more succinctly you look beneath Vader’s armor, and thus into his inner life, the more effective they are. In other words: Those movies were in awe of Vader and they transmitted those feelings to their audience.

The Disney+ series just can’t handle Star Wars characters

The Obi-Wan series now faces the luxurious problem of having an iconic character with many secrets still brewing. A jackpot for every author team. But hopefully the Obi-Wan team realizes the fine line they’re walking. Not every secret needs to be revealed.

What Deborah Chow says about her plans for Darth Vader sounds interesting. It’s also not like Darth Vader should never appear in a Star Wars entry again. My problem is that I don’t think Darth Vader is compatible with the series. Or more precisely: Not compatible with Disney+ series.

That The Star Wars universe is after a decade of figure recycling no longer rich in myths. Darth Vader is one of the last who hasn’t been cremated. In addition, the Disney era, with its creative leaders Kathleen Kennedy, Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni, often carelessly and mindlessly burnt down major Star Wars characters.

After Luke Skywalker’s calculated cheering performance in The Mandalorian season 2 finale, Boba Fett demoted the Jedi Master to an extra. An irritating experience, and not just because of the unnecessary deep fake transformation. After his own series, there is nothing left of the already fragile aura of the popular Boba Fett. The sequel trilogy previously brought Emperor Palpatine as a zombie return. And yes, even the grumpy Yoda was belittled in a merchandise-fair way, if not already by his jumping frog-like CGI version in the prequels, then by his quasi-son Grogu at the latest.

Obi-Wan Kenobi becomes a test of whether the Star Wars Disney+ is capable of learning

Even Disney has shied away from Vader so far. His appearance in Rogue One was short and powerful and heard among the finest minutes the Disney era has spawned from 2015 onwards Has. It was created by Gareth Edwards, a director who knows that sometimes you have to withhold the candy from the audience in order for it to have the right effect: the cumulative screen time of the eponymous monster in his 2014 Godzilla film is a hand-timed 11 minutes and 16 seconds with a film length of almost 2 hours.

I, sorry Deborah Chow, simply don’t trust a series from the impulse-controlled Disney+ forge to do this discipline. Rumors are already circulating that Hayden Christensen will be taking his helmet off again as Darth Vader in Obi-Wan Kenobi. Of course, we don’t know if that actually happens. But somehow that sounds exactly like something a Star Wars Disney+ series would do.

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