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Post by Cryogenic on May 7, 2022 20:22:57 GMT
Darth Vader as Product:  From Obi-Wan Kenobi Trailer #2, 2022.  From Geely PREFACE Production Car Reveal, 2020.  From Obi-Wan Kenobi Trailer #2, 2022.  From Geely PREFACE Production Car Reveal, 2020. LOL. He's more automobile now than man. Teak interior and 500 horsepower. |
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Post by smittysgelato on May 7, 2022 21:46:25 GMT
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Post by smittysgelato on May 7, 2022 22:43:03 GMT
Alternatively, we could also say there is a monster movie approach in the way Vader is presented in the trailer: ![]()  The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012).  The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, (2012).  Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, (2016).  Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, (2016). Obi-Wan Kenobi, Trailer #2, (2022). Obi-Wan Kenobi, Trailer #2, (2022). Like the opening of Smaug's eye, Vader's chest panel lighting up is meant to build suspense, anticipation, or even spook the audience by suggesting that not only is the monster right in front of us, he is now awake, and he knows we're here! Ahhhhh! |
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Post by ArchdukeOfNaboo on May 8, 2022 2:47:21 GMT
Okay, enough fun, folks, let's get back to business.
Hayden Christensen on his role in the upcoming series:
On the fighting style:
More to be found from Anthony over on Naboo News
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Post by smittysgelato on May 8, 2022 4:44:54 GMT
It is such a joy to hear Hayden speak about this character again. I'm surprised that the fighting style is going to be more like the Prequels, seeing as the rest of the aesthetic is more OT-esque. I also got the impression over the years that Vader's armor and prosthetics tend to slow him down, so surely he can't be Prequel fast. Perhaps somewhere in between? Maybe I'm just underestimating the amputee?
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Post by Cryogenic on May 9, 2022 1:43:52 GMT
I like how Hayden is so wonderfully protective of Anakin in his own way. He was the one who brought the older Anakin to life, after all.
There's something quite shocking about the way he casually mentions the name of Padme, as well. How many times, up to this point, have we heard her name spoken in any Disney interview, for any upcoming project, anywhere? Hayden drops the name like, "Well, duh. This was the chick I was married to." She's almost anathema to the new copyright holders. Well, until Hayden speaks! Hayden speaks, we listen. Just as Anakin's mentor in ROTS is Palpatine, so Hayden's mentor on the film was Lucas. It sounds like he has taken all that knowledge and confidence that Lucas gave him into this project, and he's speaking freely but also making sure to get those mentions in. The prequel light has been switched back on; at least, if Hayden has anything to say about it. Great stuff.
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Post by ArchdukeOfNaboo on May 9, 2022 1:53:33 GMT
It is such a joy to hear Hayden speak about this character again.
It's surreal. If you go back to my earliest postings on this site, maybe in The Clone Wars thread, you'll find me pondering the idea of live-action clone war era flashbacks. I never thought we'd really get it, it was just me trying to work out what I might actually enjoy seeing in Star Wars, after never getting attached to anything in the sequels (despite my best efforts). I'm still annoyed by how short the final return season of the Clone Wars was too, it featured next to no Anakin & Obi-Wan (perhaps this show is why).
Now whether we'll get all 4 for a reunion, that is Obi-Wan, Anakin, Padmé and Ahsoka, remains to be seen. We're certainly getting the first two and that's brilliant in itself, and we should be highly thankful. But if Star Wars is all about empowering female characters, as Disney never stopped reminding us during the ST, then why not show some love for the PT's heroines? Certainly Padmé doesn't get half the love she deserves.
It's great that Cryogenic has gotten excited for this programme too. If you recall in the earlier speculation, he was rather neutral about it.
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Post by Cryogenic on May 9, 2022 2:21:13 GMT
It's great that Cryogenic has gotten excited for this programme too. If you recall in the earlier speculation, he was rather neutral about it. I was. And yes, I have. I guess, for all my disdain of Ewan's negativity toward the prequels, or his experience while making them, there's nothing like seeing the man himself back in the role. Suddenly, it's Star Wars again. Moreover, the excitement of other fans only adds to my own. It's great that there's such a wonderful buzz around this series, based on these trailers. I could never get into the hype for TFA (which was pretty noisy, let's not forget, despite people singing a different tune now). So this Obi-Wan miniseries is my moment. And for many other prequel fans, it's quite evidently theirs, too. Then, as I've said in here, I think the Inquisitors make for a cool bunch of villains in this slice of the SW universe. We'll have to wait and see how the film handles them, but so far, there's reason to feel encouraged. I also think it's pretty crazy that this thing is something like six-hours in length -- almost as long as the prequels! That's tremendously exciting because it gives this series room to breathe a little. The downfall of something like "Rogue One" is that it couldn't be what this series eventually became: a short-form television series on a movie budget. I say all this despite feeling pretty unmoved about similar things, and obvious antecedents, like "The Mandalorian" and "The Book of Boba Fett". The whole concept of "Star Wars as Space Western" just drives me up the wall. While it's true that there are desert landscapes once more in the Obi-Wan series, having the main character be Obi-Wan, a hunted Jedi, puts a different spin on the whole thing. So that's where I am. Oh, yeah. And getting to see Hayden as Anakin/Vader, too! This series sounds like it isn't ashamed of the prequels and wants to do right by them. That in itself is very new here. We've waited ten years for a live-action thing from Disney to take this stance. Now all it needs to do is come out! |
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Post by ArchdukeOfNaboo on May 9, 2022 3:11:19 GMT
There could be a chance we have Anakin in the present too. This might require the Vader mask fading away, for some reason or another. We could also get Obi-Wan hallucinating in a cave, with his former padowan haunting him. Then you have the imagined future. Would it not be fascinating to get Vader having a vision of what his life could have become, had the terrible events on Mustafar not occurred? This may be multiverse territory, but it would further sell the calamity that the character has become. How does he feel about himself when he wakes up from a dream like? Not good, one imagines. So it doesn't necessarily have to be the past that Vader is always dwelling on in his chamber. I also think it's pretty crazy that this thing is something like six-hours in length -- almost as long as the prequels! That's tremendously exciting because it gives this series room to breathe a little. The downfall of something like "Rogue One" is that it couldn't be what this series eventually became: a short-form television series on a movie budget. 6x45 minute episodes = 4.5 hours. So more like two prequels!
This series sounds like it isn't ashamed of the prequels and wants to do right by them. That in itself is very new here. We've waited ten years for a live-action thing from Disney to take this stance. Now all it needs to do is come out! That's the crux of the matter. It is indeed a brave new world for Disney Star Wars. Many of us were crying out for Anakin's involvement in TROS, the most devoted were even doing so before TLJ.
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Post by smittysgelato on May 9, 2022 4:39:46 GMT
I want that scene now. Vader dreaming of what could have been.
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Post by ArchdukeOfNaboo on May 9, 2022 6:04:27 GMT
I want that scene now. Vader dreaming of what could have been.
There's a comic strip on that actually. I haven't seen it in ages, I believe its from the 2000s.
Now if only I could find it...
I've long enjoyed counterfactual history, so it doesn't make much effort to get me interested in the great what ifs of Star Wars 
Wonderful new interview with the series director here:
I must give major props to this interviewer. I don't think I've ever seen someone so accurately call out the problem with prequel bashing (ie geek media, not just obnoxious fanboys) in front of a Disney Lucasfilm person before. He sounds like a Naberrie Fields reader! And the director couldn't have given a more comprehensive answer, shying away from nothing. If her previous statements recorded earlier in this thread weren't reassuring enough, then now we have this. it's also a subtle middle finger to the "fixism" disease we find in the geek media.
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Post by Cryogenic on May 9, 2022 13:23:53 GMT
There could be a chance we have Anakin in the present too. This might require the Vader mask fading away, for some reason or another. We could also get Obi-Wan hallucinating in a cave, with his former padowan haunting him. Then you have the imagined future. Would it not be fascinating to get Vader having a vision of what his life could have become, had the terrible events on Mustafar not occurred? This may be multiverse territory, but it would further sell the calamity that the character has become. How does he feel about himself when he wakes up from a dream like? Not good, one imagines. So it doesn't necessarily have to be the past that Vader is always dwelling on in his chamber. Yes, interesting. I don't know if they'll do that, but it certainly can't be ruled out. "Through the Force, things you will see. The future. The past. Old friends long gone." Ah. I was going off something I read, from Ewan himself, that said the episodes would be roughly one-hour in length: www.mensjournal.com/entertainment/ewan-mcgregor-cover-story/(Note: These quotes go back to 2019). It might be an optimistic statement on Ewan's part, however, because "The Mandalorian" varies in duration, with episodes running from around 25 minutes to 47 minutes, which this page argues is a positive: ifilmthings.com/the-mandalorians-episode-lengths/However, while "The Book of Boba Fett" also has short episode run-times, there appears to be more of a backlash about it: insidethemagic.net/2021/12/star-wars-fans-slam-book-of-boba-fett-runtime-rwb1/Personally, I'm a bit of an old-fashioned guy, and I'd prefer it if the episodes for the Obi-Wan miniseries were of a more consistent length. I'd also prefer it if they were each close to an hour long, but I suppose I can handle 45 minutes. The thing this time around is that there is a set number of episodes and that's it. This thing isn't going into seasons. Thus, both less is more and more is more. Hayden's voice has gotten deeper. He sounds quite Vader-like now. I want that scene now. Vader dreaming of what could have been. DC: I think with some of the other characters and the legacy of it, I think every one of them, all the different actors, have different relationships, you know, to the series. Also a lot of time has passed and they’ve gone on to live their lives. And so there’s a lot of things that happened for all of them.
I think the one that was the most meaningful for us was Hayden. We’re both Canadian. So I actually met met up with him just outside of Toronto. And I was very glad to actually get to talk to him in sort of a more one-on-one environment that was away from everything else. And it’s hard. It’s a huge franchise and everybody has a different relationship. So I think the biggest thing for me was trying to assure them all that I understood, and I respected the legacy of what did exist, and what they’d done. Also that we weren’t just going to try to rewrite it, but that we were really going to try to explore these characters at a different point in their lives, and a different point in the timeline. Hmm, yeah. "We weren't just going to try to rewrite it" comes near to sounding like a pop at the ST, or TFA, at least. "This will begin to make things right." Remember that line at the start of the Abrams movie? Or the quip JJ made about Jar Jar's bones in the desert of Jakku? There's a whole different ethos here. The prequels are being acknowledged as a solid foundation, it's some of the same actors, and the story/world are a direct consequence of PT/TCW/Rebels lore. In the words of Obi-Wan himself: "There. That's better." |
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Post by Seeker of the Whills on May 9, 2022 13:45:56 GMT
DC: I think with some of the other characters and the legacy of it, I think every one of them, all the different actors, have different relationships, you know, to the series. Also a lot of time has passed and they’ve gone on to live their lives. And so there’s a lot of things that happened for all of them.
I think the one that was the most meaningful for us was Hayden. We’re both Canadian. So I actually met met up with him just outside of Toronto. And I was very glad to actually get to talk to him in sort of a more one-on-one environment that was away from everything else. And it’s hard. It’s a huge franchise and everybody has a different relationship. So I think the biggest thing for me was trying to assure them all that I understood, and I respected the legacy of what did exist, and what they’d done. Also that we weren’t just going to try to rewrite it, but that we were really going to try to explore these characters at a different point in their lives, and a different point in the timeline. Hmm, yeah. "We weren't just going to try to rewrite it" comes near to sounding like a pop at the ST, or TFA, at least. "This will begin to make things right." Remember that line at the start of the Abrams movie? Or the quip JJ made about Jar Jar's bones in the desert of Jakku? There's a whole different ethos here. The prequels are being acknowledged as a solid foundation, it's some of the same actors, and the story/world are a direct consequence of PT/TCW/Rebels lore. In the words of Obi-Wan himself: "There. That's better." I think one of the first few episodes of The Mandalorian has a comeback to that infamous line from TFA: "It is good to restore the natural order of things after a period of such disarray." That immediately struck me as a jab at TFA and Abrams, a sort of declaration from the "new guard" of Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni that they were taking Star Wars back. The Mandalorian also flaunted the visit of George Lucas to its set quite publically, showing the difference in approach to Abrams' movie, on which Lucas said they weren't very keen on having him involved.  |
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Post by ArchdukeOfNaboo on May 9, 2022 20:08:33 GMT
Personally, I'm a bit of an old-fashioned guy, and I'd prefer it if the episodes for the Obi-Wan miniseries were of a more consistent length. I'd also prefer it if they were each close to an hour long, but I suppose I can handle 45 minutes. The thing this time around is that there is a set number of episodes and that's it. This thing isn't going into seasons. Thus, both less is more and more is more. I'm probably similar. 50-60 minutes an episode sounds about right to me, though in advert-heavy US TV, 42 minutes is often the going rate.
Hayden's voice has gotten deeper. He sounds quite Vader-like now. It's something that happens all of us as we get older. You could argue it's more noticeable in women, given how they tend to be more associated with lighter, higher pitched voices. In this regard, it's analogous to getting skin wrinkles, there's no escaping it, though there would be the key difference in women being under the spotlight for it, and/or perceiving it has to be urgently addressed with skincare. Metrosexual males would be a bit similar.
Natalie Portman's voice has changed a lot since the prequels. Less princess, more raspy (for lack of a better word).
What I'd also say is that the type of microphone used plays a big factor. Your mobile phone or laptop's microphone, for example, are far more limited that a professional mic. Hayden is speaking through one in this video which excels at capturing the low frequency range, thus allowing him to sound deeper. I don't think his on-set mic for ROTS is as catered to this.
Hmm, yeah. "We weren't just going to try to rewrite it" comes near to sounding like a pop at the ST, or TFA, at least. "This will begin to make things right." Remember that line at the start of the Abrams movie? Or the quip JJ made about Jar Jar's bones in the desert of Jakku? There's a whole different ethos here. The prequels are being acknowledged as a solid foundation, it's some of the same actors, and the story/world are a direct consequence of PT/TCW/Rebels lore. In the words of Obi-Wan himself: "There. That's better."
I never really interpreted Chow's words as a dig at the sequels. I think it's more of a reverence towards the PT actors and its director, George Lucas, more than anything. If it's a pop at anyone, it's the people who say the pReQuEls nEeD tO bE fIxeD !!!!1
Abrams and Johnson, if I'll be honest, only gave lip service to Lucas when mentioning or invoking him; it was like a chore they had to do. Chow, on the other hand, seems to genuinely understand the significance of the PT. That is something very new to the Disney era. For Filoni, it's different, because he actually worked with Lucas - it's long been obvious that the maker is his idol.
Chow isn't giving the bashers or the fake prequel lovers an inch. It's such a pleasant change.
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Post by smittysgelato on May 9, 2022 20:10:49 GMT
Yeaaaah, my homeboy and homegirl are gonna do their best to make this awesome!!!!
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Post by Cryogenic on May 9, 2022 21:16:20 GMT
Personally, I'm a bit of an old-fashioned guy, and I'd prefer it if the episodes for the Obi-Wan miniseries were of a more consistent length. I'd also prefer it if they were each close to an hour long, but I suppose I can handle 45 minutes. The thing this time around is that there is a set number of episodes and that's it. This thing isn't going into seasons. Thus, both less is more and more is more. I'm probably similar. 50-60 minutes an episode sounds about right to me, though in advert-heavy US TV, 42 minutes is often the going rate. True. Although Disney+ doesn't have adverts -- yet. Some are apparently being introduced soon: press.disney.co.uk/news/disney+-to-introduce-an-ad-supported-subscription-offering-in-late-2022I do think the way he is mic-ed there is doing something, yeah. Although, as you said, people's voices do darken with age. Natalie's has certainly gotten rather raspy, hasn't it? My own voice seems darker in recent years, but I've been suffering acid reflux for a few years, and I think it's having an effect. If you have a youthful-sounding voice, chances are you're aging well. Right. But Abrams and Johnson are clearly, to some extent, either among that cohort or not above pandering to it. If Disney/LFL had not discarded Lucas' treatments in the way they did, we would almost certainly have gotten a Sequel Trilogy more faithful to the prequels. And given the way the sequels went about things, especially TFA, they basically did overwrite or only tepidly integrate the prequels into their makeup. Thus, Chow seems to be saying, in as many words, "We're not going to repeat the sins of the ST."
I (mostly) agree here. Yet, even in Chow's wording, I do not detect bursting enthusiasm for the PT. Even Abrams has said words to the effect that he respects the historical, in-universe reality of the prequels, and that the prequels can't be ignored, however much he may personally dislike midi-chlorians or whatever. What she says isn't greatly different. Nothing along the lines of, "Wow! Weren't those prequels really something? How terrible they were pulled apart as they were." It feels like people at Disney/LFL are always watching their words and guarded in their praise. Still, the air also feels a bit cleaner now, and I await the arrival of the series. In the end, however it turns out, it will speak for itself.
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Post by smittysgelato on May 9, 2022 21:26:42 GMT
The thing about the Obi-Wan series is that it is conveniently, by its very nature, distanced enough from the Prequels that the filmmakers can depart from them to a degree, but not so distanced that it is like the Prequels never existed.
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Post by smittysgelato on May 9, 2022 21:31:13 GMT
In other words...
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Post by Cryogenic on May 9, 2022 21:48:10 GMT
The thing about the Obi-Wan series is that it is conveniently, by its very nature, distanced enough from the Prequels that the filmmakers can depart from them to a degree, but not so distanced that it is like the Prequels never existed. Perfectly said. In fairness to Chow and the other creatives, you can't really tackle something like the inter-trilogy life of Obi-Wan Kenobi and simply ignore the prequels or go to extreme lengths to "fix" them. You have to acknowledge their proximity and impact. There needs to be a through-line. So, one would think, this isn't a repeat of the situation of an opportunist like J.J. Abrams getting to do Star Wars his way, because the ST timeline is far enough away from the PT's that he could strategically ignore them and effectively start over. Nor some wacky "alt-verse" fantasy where we encounter an entirely different Obi-Wan getting up to totally different things in a world that only has the thinnest resemblance to Star Wars. There has to be some faithfulness here to the core concept and to the legacy of the prequels themselves. So, yeah. Hopefully, they've chosen a person who genuinely has some prequel blood running through their veins, and not someone merely going through the motions of respect because they're secretly far more addicted to the OT and dismissive of the PT's expanded (and expansive) canvas. We've already had more than enough of the latter from Disney/LFL these past ten years. |
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Post by ArchdukeOfNaboo on May 9, 2022 23:45:33 GMT
Oh, for the love of God. First we see Disney+ do away with the Netflix streaming model of releasing all episodes at once, now they're even prepared to bring in good old fashioned adverts. What's next, mandatory 12 month contracts?
I'm afraid we haven't "moved on" or "progressed" from cable/satellite Television whatsoever. We've only seen the consooomers been take for suckers. Slowly, but surely, streaming is morphing into cable, and the gimmick of doing things everything though the internet cUz iTs cOnVeNiEnT is wearing off. Very similar is to be said about electric cars.
My hunch would be that introducing adverts are a cynical excuse to hike up the current subscription price, dubbing it "Go add free!!!" Will we see a Facebook-style digital stalking machine generating data for those ads too?
Thank heavens I haven't been subscribed to Disney Plus since TCW came out in 2020.
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