This Week in the Clone Wars: James Arnold Taylor Plays Jedi and Separatist

After a week off, The Clone Wars returns with the second episode in an arc involving a Jedi jailbreak from a Separatist prison. Two weeks ago, Anakin and Obi-Wan found the prisoners; this week, they must escape from the galaxy's securest facility.

At the start of the season, I interviewed James Arnold Taylor, the voice of Obi-Wan Kenobi, for GeekDad and he said that he had some high-profile episodes coming up. The Citadel story arc certainly qualifies, as Taylor voices Kenobi, Plo Koon and the Separatist prison warden, Osi Sobeck:

Most of the time, we work as a cast and we say our lines in sequence. Some actors need to kind of stay in the mode of the character, but [on The Clone Wars], we’re all very comfortable with just switching back and forth ... So when we did these sessions, it was a lot of fun. There was a point where I was doing all three [characters] in a scene, jumping from voice to voice. I love doing that stuff. I’m a ham. The fun thing about Osi – we’ll see, but I’m sure people have realized who I am actually doing. It’s not an impersonation, but it’s inspired by someone in particular – and as we went through the episode, it grew and changed. We’re not making fun; we’re paying homage to his acting beats and his style, but we’re not trying to fool anybody. Hopefully people will enjoy that and have fun with that, because that’s what we were doing.

I watch the show because I’m a fan. I love visually how it looks. I watch it from a study perspective, and I watch it because of the vital Star Wars elements that are in these episodes. I like these fun, swashbuckling, action episodes. That’s what was so fun about these; the [recording] sessions are like that, too. OK, we’re moving, you’re shouting, you’re fighting. The action ones, I can sink my teeth into immediately. I mean, come on, it doesn’t get any more Star Wars than that.

Here's this week's preview clip:

Also, last week it was announced that next month's season 3 finale would feature a very special character: Chewbacca. Here's a behind-the-scenes look at his return to the Star Wars universe.