Joby Harold

"As you know, we would never break canon. So, that's all I'll say. [Laughs] Canon is everything."

―Joby Harold^[1]

Joby Harold is the showrunner, writer, and an executive producer on Obi-Wan Kenobi. He took Stuart Beattie's scripts for an Obi-Wan Kenobi film and turned them into a six-hour series. He is also known for writing for the films Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, and The Flash, as well as making his directorial debut with the film Awake. His latest venture will be the upcoming film Atlas, which he will also write and direct.

Biography[]

In January, 2020, Lucasfilm Ltd. president Kathleen Kennedy announced that an overhaul for the Obi-Wan Kenobi television series was in order. She temporarily shut down production, and hired Joby Harold to take over from Hossein Amini.^[2] Harold completely focused on Obi-Wan Kenobi being episode 3.5, and it had to marry the storytelling choices between the original trilogy and the prequels.^[3] Harold said that Obi-Wan Kenobi was a character that he had a minor obsession over.^[2] Harold wasn't given a mandate when he first came in,^[3] but when he learned that the series was exploring Kenobi as a character, he aggressively told the crew all of the things he thought they should do.^[2] Harold took Stuart Beattie's scripts for a scrapped Star Wars Anthology film of Kenobi and turned them into a six-hour series.^[4]

Harold and director Deborah Chow crafted a new story that took place 10 years after the 2005 film Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith. Kenobi was meant to be a lost and broken man who felt responsible for what happened to Anakin Skywalker in the film. The series was meant to focus on Kenobi's journey from pain to a modicum of peace. Harold wanted to understand the story of what happened to Kenobi between Ewan McGregor and Alec Guinness's portrayal of him.^[2] Harold explained that part of Kenobi's journey will be reconciling his past and coming to understand his place in it. Kenobi's journey and the places he had to go to were meant to have much to do with facing that past and understanding who he was, his part in his own history, and his part in the history of others.^[5] During production, Harold and the crew believed that "lightness of touch" is a really important aspect of Star Wars, leading to that being shown in characters in the series. He wanted to balance the lightness with the weight of the drama in a similar way to the 1980 film The Empire Strikes Back.^[3]

Harold wanted the scene of the Third Sister, Grand Inquisitor and Fifth Brother walking off the Scythe to have a western motif with three characters walking down the street as everyone is intimidated.^[6] Harold tried to think of something that would be seismic enough to make Kenobi leave Tatooine, which led to him writing young Leia Organa as a call to action for Kenobi.^[1] Harold was excited about filling in the gaps in Organa's story that were alluded to in her message to Kenobi in the 1977 film Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope,^[7] such as why she asked Kenobi for help.^[3] Harold also wanted Organa to be as important as Luke Skywalker was. The main goal was to craft Organa in a way that honored Carrie Fisher's portrayal^[1] in the original trilogy^[8] and showed that she has the best of Padmé Amidala and Anakin Skywalker. Harold also wanted to show how Organa's adoptive parents formed who she becomes.^[1] Harold found it challenging to write her in a way that come across as her being spirited and not just an adult writing for a child.^[3] He looked at the films Paper Moon and Midnight Run for influence on Organa and Kenobi's relationship after the former's rescue on Daiyu.^[1] A code name was used to keep Organa's appearance a secret.^[3]

Harold wanted the series to begin with Order 66 to remind the audience of where Kenobi's journey began and to establish that the stakes are high for everyone. Per director J.J. Abrams' advice, Harold decided that it should be a massive moment when Jedi use the Force and it must be earned, so Kenobi didn't use the Force until he saved Organa from a fall in the second episode. The writer felt like having a fake Jedi would be a fun thing to add to Star Wars, leading to the creation of the con artist Haja Estree, a character that Harold has said he loves.^[1] During the writing process, Harold thought of having Kenobi learn that Anakin Skywalker survived their duel on Mustafar to get the series to a place of intense drama for Kenobi. He first had to ask^[9] the Star Wars lore advisor^[10] Pablo Hidalgo how much Kenobi knows during the show's time period and Harold was given permission to use the scene.^[9]

Harold explained that in the series, all of the "horrors that come with the Empire are being made manifest throughout the galaxy, so everything that was in the prequels has crumbled." Harold promised that the new Inquisitor Reva, played by Moses Ingram, would contribute to the legacy of Star Wars villains in "a really interesting way." Harold and Chow described Reva as ruthless and ambitious,^[2] and Harold viewed her as a worthy adversary that would bring something unexpected.^[11] Harold found it was important to define how singular of purpose she is through action as well as monologuing. To do this, Harold had Reva be unpredictable such as when she cut off a woman's hand. Harold also established Reva as being impulsive and committed to her own goals, so he felt like there was enough room for her character to push further than the other Inquisitors.^[1]

Harold wrote that the Grand Inquisitor enjoys the sound of his own voice and talks a lot, so the actor Rupert Friend spoke like someone who likes their own voice.^[12] Harold created the planet Daiyu for the show, which he described as having a "Hong Kong feel to it."^[2] Originally, there were going to be different, more expensive versions of the scene of Kenobi in the spice lab, but it was decided that a meth lab was more in reach of something Harold and the crew could do production-wise. Harold thought it was a nice way for Kenobi to be undercover in a world foreign to him compared to his cave on Tatooine.^[3] Harold said that Darth Vader's shadow was cast over much of production of the show and Vader was written to be there emotionally for Kenobi and possibly beyond.^[13]

When Harold was writing Vader, he wanted to trump Vader's scene in the ending of the 2016 film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. At one point, Vader was a lot more extreme, though Harold got pulled back a little bit. For the scenes on Mapuzo, Harold decided that Vader had to express his feelings in action to reveal the character beneath.^[1] Harold had Kenobi and Vader duel in the series because he found that there was no line in a A New Hope that said they could not. When writing fight scenes, such as their duel on Mapuzo, Harold tried to find a way for character to come through action. He wrote the choreography from a character point of view, which got handed off to stunt coordinator Jojo Eusebio who developed the fight sequence with Deborah Chow. Harold said the key to the sequence and Vader is feeling and articulating the range and anger under it all. He also wanted to find ways to feel the rivalry between the characters and to define the opportunities that are present in the fight.^[3]