In Obi-Wan Kenobi's season finale, the titular Jedi Master battled Darth Vader in an epic duel which finally revealed the origin of that scar on the Sith Lord's head.
Vader's helmet was slashed open during the fight, revealing Anakin Skywalker's scarred visage beneath. A brief exchange with Obi-Wan then followed which saw Hayden Christensen's voice merged with James Earl Jones' iconic take on Vader. That left us with a lot to unpack but teased the villain's duality in an effective way.
Talking to Variety (via SFFGazette.com), re-recording mixer Bonnie Wild and supervising sound editor Matthew Wood explained their approach to creating what proved to be one of the Star Wars franchise's most iconic moments.
"We knew that there was gonna be confrontations between two legacy characters," he says, "and we want to make sure we honor what’s come before us and the legacy of ['Star Wars' sound designer] Ben Burtt and what he’s created here at Skywalker Sound."
"So when you hear these things, it’s kind of like the subconscious glue that holds 'Star Wars' together, is the sound and the music."
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"This is a moment for them to have some humanity. We really wanted to make sure that Hayden Christensen’s performance came through we had that very fragile, intimate scene there, but then in the meantime we also had the voice of James Earl Jones to come through."
"And so we tried a really nice blend of those two moments," Wood concludes, "and we found the great moments where we could start the sentence with Hayden but end it with James."
Wild added, "The exciting thing about the sounds of 'Star Wars,' it’s always about the blend and the balance...it’s considering who has the upper hand in each moment."
Rumour has it Ahsoka will feature another broken helmet sequence with Vader, this time recreating the villain's fateful duel with Ahsoka Tano in Star Wars Rebels. We'd guess the same audio tricks will be used for that, though it will be interesting to see how it differs from what we saw last year.
All episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi are now streaming on Disney+.