Deborah Chow Talks About Obi-Wan Kenobi’s Love Story

Deborah Chow Talks About Obi-Wan Kenobi’s Love Story

It is with a delighted heart and a joyful mien that I can finally, declaratively say without a doubt that the public can no long ignore the sheer expanse of homoerotic subtext at the core of Obi-Wan and Anakin’s relationship. Why can we no longer live in ignorance, denying ourselves the basic truth of canon that was long ago identified by fandom years ago and subsequently made even more clear in Matthew Stover’s novelization, Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith?

Well, we have Obi-Wan Kenobi executive producer/showrunner Deborah Chow to thank for saying the quiet part out loud. In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, Chow said that the main reason she was able to convince the powers that be within Lucasfilm to bring the character of Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader into the Disney+ series was because of the love story. No, really.

“For me, across the prequels, through the original trilogy, there’s a love-story dynamic with these two that goes through the whole thing,” Chow said in the interview. “I felt like it was quite hard to not [include] the person who left Kenobi in such anguish in the series… What’s special about that relationship is that they loved each other.”

OK so we’re saying that these two men who grew up together, who had a very strange, contentious, back-and-forth, and ultimately toxic relationship were very much in love? Yup. I’m on board. I need very little reason to inject homoromantic subtext into any piece of media and when the showrunner of Obi-Wan Kenobi comes out and outright says that there is a “love-story dynamic” to their relationship, I’ll take that and run with it. And if that’s like, not your thing, you don’t have to subscribe to my newsletter. I’m just one fan.

Look, I’ll be the first to admit that I rarely acquiesce to the flimsy and often contradictory statements of franchise canon, especially in something like Star Wars which has been rebooted, retconned, and rewritten (to the tune of gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss) to the edge of the universe and back. But this is fun. This is very fun. I like this.

So are we going to see Obi-Wan and Anakin kiss? Nah. Not unless you go back in time to the London screening of Return of the Sith and slip that very sneaky fancam into the series at some point in time. But will this fuel the fic writers, fandom, and artists? Absolutely. God bless and enjoy the win ObiKin stans.

Obi-Wan Kenobi will release two episodes on Disney+ on May 27.

Want more Gizmodo news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel and Star Wars releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about House of the Dragon and Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.


Editor’s Note: Release dates within this article are based in the U.S., but will be updated with local Australian dates as soon as we know more.


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