Obi-Wan Kenobi: The Complete Series arrives on 4K UHD on April 30th in North America, and Variety.com shares a new behind the scenes clip shows how the bacta tank was created and how Hayden Christensen held his breath for each take.
In a clip from the upcoming physical media release of the show, Lucasfilm explores how its creative team built the tank, and prepared Christensen for playing the scarred character underwater without the help of an oxygen regulator. “It was really important to test it out ahead of time to make sure the lighting was correct, the water color was correct, to make sure that the prosthetic held up, and there weren’t any air bubbles,” explains associate producer Stephanie Peters. “Because we weren’t cheating it. It was Hayden without any sort of breathing apparatus, doing breath holds.”
Series co-producer and production designer Doug Chiang, who has worked on “Star Wars”-related projects since 1999, thrilled at the opportunity to showcase this famous location, even if he acknowledged that doing so runs the risk of demystifying it. “For the first time, we were going to reveal Vader in all of his various stages,” Chiang says.
“In some ways, it’s better to be more mysterious,” he admits. “But here, we’re now trying to peel back the layers.”
The clip details many of the tricks employed by the Lucasfilm team to bring the location to life. Meanwhile, Christensen says that acclimating to underwater conditions — especially ones where no bubbles could be shown — gave him the opportunity to learn a new skill. “I had to be completely submerged in water holding my breath,” he says. “[So] I got to work with a great dive coach, and he would teach me different breathing techniques.
“I think my longest breath holds were around two and a half minutes,” he recalls, indicating that the solitude was enjoyable, even wearing head-to-toe prosthetics. “It was surprisingly peaceful in there.”
Watch the clip here and preorder Obi-Wan Kenobi: The Complete Series from Amazon.com for delivery on April 30th in North America, and from Amazon.co.uk where it’s released on June 3rd in the UK/Europe. You can also stream the series on Disney+ now.
