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Well, it's been more than a year since this show finished, so I guess it's time to talk about this!
I liked the concept of bringing back Obi-Wan to see what he was up to between Episodes 3 and 4. However, like Falcon and the Winter Soldier, this was clearly originally conceptualized as a movie that was stretched to a 6-part series to provide content for Disney+. As a show, it's disappointing. It's inert and oddly paced, and lacks that swashbuckling adventure vibe that makes Star Wars Star Wars.
By trimming the story down to a more manageable 2 hours and 25 minutes (admittedly still a bit long for a Star Wars film, but cutting it further would've been to the detriment of the project) the story comes to life.
The big stuff:
- The edit runs roughly 2 hours 25 minutes.
- Reva is still there, but the last we see of her is getting stabbed on Jabim. It’s implied that she’s dead, but left ambiguous enough that she could show up for further adventures. The whole Lars farmstead sequence is excised.
- I cut the training duel flashback, and many other instances of seeing Vader out of the suit. The only time I kept was when he and Kenobi are both in their bacta tanks. I think holding off on showing Anakin makes the broken helmet moment stronger. It also screams of “scene that was cool that we cut that we can now add back in because it’s a series”
- I removed the initial Order 66 flashback, keeping Reva’s motivations less obvious.
Smaller details:
- I didn't keep a detailed cutlist while working on this, but basically every scene has been edited in some way.
- I kept my eye on pacing and making this feel like an actual movie with a three act structure. There are huge chunks cut, but also more subtle changes that just trim a line or even a few seconds from a scene.
- A few, very selective scenes bring in some original Star Wars music. I didn’t want to go too heavy on this, but Leia’s theme, Imperial March, the Force theme, and Battle of the Heroes make appearances.
- Selectively added some Gradient wipes as scene transitions.
- Episode 2 probably gets the most cuts. The entire rooftop sequence is excised, and Reva never puts the bounty out on Kenobi. It can be implied through other dialogue that the Inquisitors put the city on lockdown and have people looking for them. Almost every scene in this section got a little trim.
- The first Vader duel got some trims for pacing, and to minimize the silliness of Kenobi running away a bunch of times.
- The rescue from the castle is also heavily trimmed, and Kenobi does not find the frozen bodies. I thought that was cool, but it doesn’t go anywhere with regard to the rest of the plot.
- Tala’s scene with Reva is also much shorter. She doesn’t try to play the double agent card.
- The battle on Jabim is much tighter. It doesn’t feel like the Stormtroopers miss a million easy shots anymore.
- Kenobi’s decision to leave the rebels and lure Vader happens a bit faster to keep the pace high.
- There are some trims to the big duel. But they were mainly to make the scene flow together well after cutting Reva stuff.
- I added the standard Star Wars end credits music.
This has been submitted to IFDB.
I liked the concept of bringing back Obi-Wan to see what he was up to between Episodes 3 and 4. However, like Falcon and the Winter Soldier, this was clearly originally conceptualized as a movie that was stretched to a 6-part series to provide content for Disney+. As a show, it's disappointing. It's inert and oddly paced, and lacks that swashbuckling adventure vibe that makes Star Wars Star Wars.
By trimming the story down to a more manageable 2 hours and 25 minutes (admittedly still a bit long for a Star Wars film, but cutting it further would've been to the detriment of the project) the story comes to life.
The big stuff:
- The edit runs roughly 2 hours 25 minutes.
- Reva is still there, but the last we see of her is getting stabbed on Jabim. It’s implied that she’s dead, but left ambiguous enough that she could show up for further adventures. The whole Lars farmstead sequence is excised.
- I cut the training duel flashback, and many other instances of seeing Vader out of the suit. The only time I kept was when he and Kenobi are both in their bacta tanks. I think holding off on showing Anakin makes the broken helmet moment stronger. It also screams of “scene that was cool that we cut that we can now add back in because it’s a series”
- I removed the initial Order 66 flashback, keeping Reva’s motivations less obvious.
Smaller details:
- I didn't keep a detailed cutlist while working on this, but basically every scene has been edited in some way.
- I kept my eye on pacing and making this feel like an actual movie with a three act structure. There are huge chunks cut, but also more subtle changes that just trim a line or even a few seconds from a scene.
- A few, very selective scenes bring in some original Star Wars music. I didn’t want to go too heavy on this, but Leia’s theme, Imperial March, the Force theme, and Battle of the Heroes make appearances.
- Selectively added some Gradient wipes as scene transitions.
- Episode 2 probably gets the most cuts. The entire rooftop sequence is excised, and Reva never puts the bounty out on Kenobi. It can be implied through other dialogue that the Inquisitors put the city on lockdown and have people looking for them. Almost every scene in this section got a little trim.
- The first Vader duel got some trims for pacing, and to minimize the silliness of Kenobi running away a bunch of times.
- The rescue from the castle is also heavily trimmed, and Kenobi does not find the frozen bodies. I thought that was cool, but it doesn’t go anywhere with regard to the rest of the plot.
- Tala’s scene with Reva is also much shorter. She doesn’t try to play the double agent card.
- The battle on Jabim is much tighter. It doesn’t feel like the Stormtroopers miss a million easy shots anymore.
- Kenobi’s decision to leave the rebels and lure Vader happens a bit faster to keep the pace high.
- There are some trims to the big duel. But they were mainly to make the scene flow together well after cutting Reva stuff.
- I added the standard Star Wars end credits music.
This has been submitted to IFDB.
