By George & Josh Bate
Three years after its release, Obi-Wan Kenobi continues to generate conversation among Star Wars fans. The Ewan McGregor earned praise for its continuation of plot threads from Revenge of the Sith, although the final product was quite different than initially envisioned.
Prior to being a Disney+ series, Obi-Wan Kenobi was conceived as a movie, a trilogy of movies in fact. Stuart Beattie, who wrote the story and created the characters for the original Pirates of the Caribbean, was hired to write the first movie. Eventually, Beattie was replaced when the project was turned into a show, but he retains screenwriter credit as a writer on episodes 1-3 and the finale.
In an interview with The Direct back in 2022, Beattie revealed story details of his Obi-Wan Kenobi movie. Here’s an overview of those details.
- The main purpose of the story was to depict Kenobi as he comes to terms with the fact that Darth Vader “killed” Anakin Skywalker.
- Darth Vader is obsessed with Kenobi and tells Emperor Palpatine that Kenobi and Yoda remain the biggest threats to the Empire. Despite this, Palpatine insists Vader let go of his attachment to Kenobi.
- The movie would begin with an action sequence depicting Darth Vader’s slaughter of five Jedi. This was intended to establish Vader from the get-go as “the big Jedi killer.”
- Commander Cody would have played a significant role in the movie. His arc would explain how Cody evolved from the clone in Revenge of the Sith to a clone free of his inhibitor chip now.
- Cody was written as a lighter character, who is tragically fighting against his accelerated aging process.
- At one point, Kenobi would leave Cody to watch over Luke as he left Tatooine. Cody looking over Luke would have been a side plot that the film would cut to.
- In a funny movie that harkens back to old gangster movies, one scene would’ve had Kenobi and Cody dump bodies of stormtroopers at a Sarlacc pit, only to bump into other suspicious characters also dumping bodies.
- Kenobi would be largely cut off from the Force until a climax that sees him regain his full Force abilities, akin to Superman’s powers returning in Superman II.
- The movie would have featured the Inquisitor Reva, a character that Beattie created. Reva’s origin story is similar to what ends up in the show, although she doesn’t know Anakin is Darth Vader. In the end, Reva would be killed by Vader, rather than redeemed as she is in the series.
- The Grand Inquisitor would not have been in the movie as Beattie wanted to ensure stakes were high and characters with pre-determined fates were at a minimum.
- A vision sequence in the movie would have seen Kenobi on Mustafar dueling against Luke Skywalker, played by a de-aged Mark Hamill. Before the vision kills him, Kenobi snaps out of it and realizes projecting his guilt about Anakin’s downfall onto Luke would lead to Luke turning to the dark side.
- The climactic duel between Vader and Kenobi would have taken place on a deteriorating space station falling apart in the atmosphere. The duel would conclude similarly to the show’s duel, with Kenobi slashing Vader’s helmet and revealing part of his face. At this moment, Kenobi would finally come to terms with the fact that Darth Vader killed Anakin. In a departure from the show, however, Vader would believe that Kenobi died in the space station. This would explain why Vader does not hunt for Kenobi afterwards and why he is surprised to learn Kenobi is alive in A New Hope.
Examining Beattie’s original approach to the Obi-Wan Kenobi poses a fascinating ‘what if…?’ scenario to ponder. In the end, we are happy with what we got in the six episode series. The finale is in our top 10 (maybe even top 5) Star Wars episodes – we’d put the last 20 minutes of the finale up there against anything in Star Wars history. Vivian Lyra Blair was terrific as young Leia and Ewan McGregor added incredible depth to Obi-Wan. Here’s hoping we get a Season 2 one day. Maybe some of Beattie’s leftover ideas will find their way in.