The lore of “Star Wars” always keeps growing, not to mention the revisionism around the Prequels, a trilogy some fans seem to have grown affection for over the years. Regardless, even 25 years after George Lucas’ “Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace,” we’re still apparently learning things about it after the fact.
For example, Lucas apparently wanted to include some game-changing twist at the end of ‘Phantom Menace’ that would have flipped the script and altered the lore about the entire franchise.
In a recent interview with “Star Wars” concept and storyboard artist Iain McCaig, on StarWars.com to mark the occasion of the 25th anniversary of “The Phantom Menace,” revealed that Lucas originally wanted Liam Neeson to be the real Obi-Wan Kenobi. Say again? Yes, initially, he wanted Ewan McGregor to be Qui Gon Jinn, Neeson’s character’s name in the original. Once his character died, Qui Gon would adopt the name of Obi-Wan Kenobi, seemingly in some tribute to his fallen master.
“For a time, the older Jedi was named Obi-Wan, and the younger Jedi was named Qui-Gon,” McCaig explained in the interview. “It was very poignant that at the end, as Obi-Wan dies and Qui-Gon defeats Darth Maul and stays with his Master as he passes away, he not only takes on his Master’s quest, but he takes on his name. Qui-Gon becomes Obi-Wan.”
Apparently, this was supposed to be why Alec Guinness was surprised to hear himself called Obi-Wan in “Star Wars: A New Hope” because he was never really that person in the end.
“That’s why when you see Alec Guinness in ‘A New Hope,’ he puts his hood down and goes, ‘Obi-Wan? Now that’s a name I’ve not heard…’” McCaig added. “Because he’s not Obi-Wan, he’s Qui-Gon. And right at the end, George changed it.”
Frankly, the line works either way. Guinness’ character has been living in exile for 18 years. He’s barely seen anyone on Tatooine, and when he has, he’s been going under the name Ben Kenobi—Obi-Wan is something no one has called him in almost two decades.
Furthermore, Lucas was always tinkering with the lore anyway and—like all creatives do—making it up as he went along. When Lucas wrote and directed A New Hope, he did have some of the mythology of what happened in the prequels in his head, but he didn’t put any of it down on paper, or at least not in screenplay form, until some twenty-odd years later.
Either way, Obi-Wan being Qui-Gon initially and then adopting the name of his master doesn’t change much in the end either way. It’s just a name. However, one has to wonder, what else do we not know about “Star Wars” mythology all these years later? Perhaps when Lucas passes on, and some treasure trove of documentation is released—in the Lucasfilm museum?—we’ll learn more.
