Before Anakin Skywalker became one of the most important characters in Star Wars, George Lucas had a very different version of the story in mind. Long before the Skywalker name fully took shape, Lucas was still experimenting with characters, family roles, and the larger direction of the saga. One of the most surprising examples of that came when he revealed that an early version of the story centered on someone named Anakin Starkiller.
George Lucas Discusses Original Story with Hayden Christensen
George Lucas once revealed that the earliest version of Star Wars looked very different from the story fans know now. In a 2005 Moviefone Unscripted interview with Hayden Christensen, Lucas said, “When I wrote the very, very first script, it was about Anakin Starkiller and his two kids.” Hayden immediately stopped him and repeated, “Starkiller?” and Lucas confirmed it. He then added that the story involved a rogue Jedi, and that parts of those early ideas eventually found their way into the saga that was finally made.
Lucas was not talking about the polished version of Star Wars that audiences eventually saw in 1977. He was talking about the very first concept stage, when names, family roles, and even the shape of the central myth were all still shifting. In that early form, “Starkiller” had not yet disappeared, and Anakin had not yet become the tragic father figure from the prequels. Instead, Lucas was still building the bones of a family saga around a character he remembered as Anakin Starkiller.
The Original Anakin Starkiller
In George Lucas’ earliest version of Star Wars, Anakin Starkiller was not the tragic father figure fans would later know as Anakin Skywalker. In those early drafts, usually spelled Annikin Starkiller, he was much closer to the young hero role that would eventually become Luke Skywalker. He was part of the original Starkiller family, the son of Kane Starkiller, and one of the central characters in a story that still looked very different from the saga Lucas would later build.
That is what makes the character so interesting. In the rough-draft material later adapted as The Star Wars, Annikin is a young apprentice figure, while Luke Skywalker already exists too, but not as the farmboy hero from A New Hope. Instead, Luke is an older Jedi general. So at that stage, Lucas had not yet separated the roles the way fans know them now. Traits that would later belong to Luke, Anakin, and even parts of Obi-Wan were still being mixed together inside much earlier versions of the story.
The family structure was also very different. Alongside Annikin and Kane, there was another Starkiller named Deak Starkiller, which shows that Lucas was already building a family saga long before the Skywalker name took over. But this was not yet the final shape of the myth. The father, the son, the mentor, and the hero were all still shifting as Lucas kept rewriting the story. In that sense, Anakin Starkiller was one of the earliest building blocks of Star Wars, even if the character himself would later be transformed into something very different.