George Lucas Initially Envisioned a Jedi Twist to Finish The Phantom Menace

A brand new interview celebrating the 25th anniversary of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace flips everything we know about the film, and franchise, on its head. Although it finally didn’t come to fruition, George Lucas originally conceived that the roles of Jedi Grasp and apprentice could be modified round within the movie, with the apprentice taking over his Grasp’s identify ultimately.

Within the movie itself, Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) is a Jedi grasp and Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) is his apprentice. When Darth Maul kills Qui-Gon, Qui-Gon makes Obi-Wan promise to coach younger Anakin Skywalker, which he does, organising every thing else we all know within the trilogy. Nevertheless, throughout improvement, idea and storyboard artist Iain McCaig revealed Lucas had one other concept. Neeson would play Obi-Wan, McGregor could be Qui-Gon, and when Obi-Wan died, Qui-Gon would take his identify as a tribute.

“It’s attention-grabbing how issues evolve,” McCaig mentioned in an prolonged interview with the official Star Wars website. “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 together 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 whenever 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.”

It’s exhausting to even think about the movie taking part in out like that after 25 years, however let’s give it some thought a bit. If Alec Guinness was initially Qui-Gon, it’d make that early second in A New Hope play a bit higher. “Oh, proper, that wasn’t my actual identify,” and so forth. However the later second between Obi-Wan and Darth Vader on the Dying Star would’ve made much less sense. Vader/Anakin would’ve initially recognized Obi-Wan as Qui-Gon—and even when he was named Obi-Wan the entire time they skilled collectively, the change provides nothing. It simply muddles issues up.

Flipping the characters does, nevertheless, make for a extra attention-grabbing model of The Phantom Menace although. Think about watching the film and seeing “Obi-Wan” die. Everybody would’ve been shocked. However, finally, making the change definitely seems like the appropriate transfer.

There are a ton of different cool tales within the McGaig interview, equivalent to how he got here up with a design for Darth Maul, so head over and check that out. But additionally, tell us what you consider this. Did Lucas make the appropriate alternative?

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