Obi-Wan Kenobi is one of the most iconic characters in the Star Wars saga, but his fate in A New Hope was not always set in stone.
The author shared this information at the end of the Star Wars: Age of Republic – Obi-Wan Kenobi comic.
Here are the details about George Lucas and his envisioned ending for Obi-Wan that you might be curious about.
According to George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars, Obi-Wan’s story could have unfolded in a very different way.
In the early drafts of A New Hope, Lucas had originally intended for Obi-Wan Kenobi to continue participating in the story well beyond the duel with Darth Vader.
The Jedi Master was meant to survive through the climactic battle and even play a role in the subsequent films, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.
However, as Lucas reviewed his script, he noticed a significant problem.
Lucas revealed in a recording that, in these early drafts, Obi-Wan simply “stood around for the last 25 percent” of A New Hope while the air battle was raging on.
The character, who had been so central to the story up until that point, had no meaningful role in the finale. This realization led Lucas to consider a more impactful and satisfying conclusion for the character.
Lucas then decided that it would be “much more powerful, satisfying and interesting if Darth Vader were to kill him,” allowing Obi-Wan to “go on to a different form.”
This change not only provided a dramatic and emotional turning point in the film but also set the stage for Obi-Wan’s spiritual return in later movies, continuing to guide Luke Skywalker as a Force ghost.
You can find this information at the end of the comic Star Wars: Age of Republic – Obi-Wan Kenobi.
At the end of the comic, you will find this intriguing information shared by Bryan Young.
In the “Killing Kenobi” he said “George Lucas didn’t always know exactly what he was going to do with the character of Obi-Wan Kenobi. In a recording about his early work on the script for A New Hope, Lucas revealed, “In that draft, he continued on through the air battle. And he continued on through the script into the other two stories [The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi].
George Lucas continued “And then I looked at it and said, You know, he just stands around for the last 25 percent of [A New Hope] while the air battle is going on. And he really has no other function. It would be much more powerful, satisfying and interesting if Darth Vader were to kill him and he were to go on to a different form.”
Lucas said later in that interview that killing Kenobi presented challenges for the rest of his story. Luke still needed to be trained and that’s why he ended up needing to create Yoda.”