A 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. Though it ultimately didn’t come to fruition, George Lucas originally conceived that the roles of Jedi Master and apprentice would be changed around in the film, with the apprentice taking on his Master’s name in the end.
In the film itself, Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) is a Jedi master and Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) is his apprentice. When Darth Maul kills Qui-Gon, Qui-Gon makes Obi-Wan promise to train young Anakin Skywalker, which he does, setting up everything else we know in the trilogy. However, during development, concept and storyboard artist Iain McCaig revealed Lucas had another idea. Neeson would play Obi-Wan, McGregor would be Qui-Gon, and when Obi-Wan died, Qui-Gon would take his name as a tribute.
“It’s interesting how things evolve,” McCaig said in an extended interview with the official Star Wars website. “For a time, the older Jedi was named Obi-Wan and the younger Jedi was named Qui-Gon. It was very poignant that at the end, as 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. That’s why when you see Alec Guinness in A New Hope, he puts his hood down and goes, ‘Obi-Wan? Now that’s a name I’ve not heard….’ Because he’s not Obi-Wan, he’s Qui-Gon. And right at the end, George changed it.”
It’s hard to even imagine the film playing out like that after 25 years, but let’s think about it a bit. If Alec Guinness was originally Qui-Gon, it might make that early moment in A New Hope play a bit better. “Oh, right, that wasn’t my real name,” etc. But the later moment between Obi-Wan and Darth Vader on the Death Star would’ve made less sense. Vader/Anakin would’ve originally known Obi-Wan as Qui-Gon—and e