In a brand new interview with former Industrial Mild and Magic idea artist Iain McCaig from StarWars.com (through Selection), the illustrator revealed that there was initially purported to be a wild twist on the finish of the divisive first prequel movie, The Phantom Menace: Liam Neeson’s character was to be the unique “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” with Ewan McGregor as Qui-Gon Jinn. McGregor would have taken up the identify after Neeson’s character’s loss of life by the hands of Darth Maul.
“It’s attention-grabbing how issues evolve,” McCaig mentioned of designing the characters’ appearances. “For a time, the older Jedi was named Obi-Wan and the youthful Jedi was named Qui-Gon. It was very poignant that on the finish, as Obi-Wan dies and Qui-Gon defeats Darth Maul and stays along with his Grasp as he passes away, he not solely takes on his Grasp’s quest, however he takes on his identify.
“Qui-Gon turns into Obi-Wan. That’s why while you see Alec Guinness in A New Hope, he places his hood down and goes, ‘Obi-Wan? Now that’s a reputation I’ve not heard….’ As a result of he’s not Obi-Wan, he’s Qui-Gon. And proper on the finish, George modified it.”
The twist would have been form of nuts, and the primary issues that come to my thoughts are quibbling nitpicks: Would not all of the individuals on the Jedi Council be all like “Hey, you are not Obi-Wan!” Yaddle and Ki-Adi-Mundi would by no means stand for this. It is harking back to a number of the different identify weirdness from earlier than Star Wars totally calcified as an mental property Demise Star—Alec Guinness going incognito as “Ben” Kenobi and calling Vader “Darth” prefer it’s his identify once they meet. I additionally simply actually love the identify “Obi-Wan Kenobi” being some form of title that will get handed down from mentor to apprentice, just like the Nite Owl or one thing.
However who cares, that is Star Wars. Nothing within the setting is sensible anthropologically or economically—there’s a number of whole planets manufactured from metropolis! A man can have a cool identify change if he needs, and I believe this could have been rad as hell.
It makes me consider the Principal and the Pauper from The Simpsons, the place Skinner’s revealed to have adopted the id of an MIA comrade from Vietnam, or the tip of Steel Gear Stable 5, with Venom Snake realizing his true relationship to Huge Boss. It will have been bizarre and memorable, an ideal capstone to the bizarre and memorable Phantom Menace, whereas additionally having some actual thematic resonance with Anakin Skywalker’s personal fated identify change.
This definitely is not the worst deserted George Lucas concept we have heard of. The unique interview is tragically gone with the wiping out of Sport Informer’s on-line archive, however you possibly can nonetheless learn on the Wayback Machine about how the legendary director supposedly wished to call The Drive Unleashed’s Starkiller both “Darth Icky” or “Darth Insanius.”
“The workforce threw a Hail Mary to George, saying the sport would have extra credibility if the apprentice had a ‘Darth’ title,” a former LucasArts worker informed Sport Informer. “He threw out ‘Darth Icky’ and ‘Darth Insanius.’ There was a pregnant pause within the room after that. Folks ready for George to say ‘simply kidding,’ nevertheless it by no means comes, and he simply moved on to a different level.”
