It’s been 25 years since Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace hit theaters, and yet we’re still learning new things about its production. And the latest tidbit would have been a major shock to moviegoers had they gone through with it. In an interview with StarWars.com, via Variety, longtime Lucasfilm concept artist Iain McCaig revealed that George Lucas originally planned one heck of a twist for the first of the prequel films. Lucas originally swapped out Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan Kenobi and Liam Neeson’s Qui-Gon Jinn as characters. Or at least, they swapped names.
Neeson was going to play Obi-Wan, the older mentor Jedi who discovers Anakin Skywalker. Meanwhile, McGregor would have been Qui-Gon, his padawan learner. Obi-Wan would have still died in battle, and upon his death, his student Qui-Gon would have assumed his name. The idea is that Obi-Wan’s death would have come as a total surprise. Every fan of the original trilogy would have just assumed that Neeson was playing a younger version of Alec Guinness’ Jedi from A New Hope. According to McCaig, this idea went pretty far along into pre-production. Lucas only changing his mind rather late in the game.
McCaig elaborated further, saying “It was very poignant that at the end, 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.” George Lucas has always loved the concept that there is rhyming between his trilogies. And it certainly would have been a shocking rhyme, if someone named Obi-Wan died in the first chapters of trilogies. If they had gone through with this twist, that would have meant Obi-Wan would have had three names throughout his life, once you include Ben. Even Lucas probably realized that’s just one name too many.
