Apparently George Lucas originally wanted Liam Neeson to be the ‘real’ Obi-Wan Kenobi, with Ewan McGregor taking up the name after he died
In a new interview with former Industrial Light and Magic concept artist Iain McCaig from StarWars.com (via Variety), the illustrator revealed that there was initially supposed to be a wild twist at the end of the divisive first prequel film, The Phantom Menace: Liam Neeson’s character was to be the original “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” with Ewan McGregor as Qui-Gon Jinn. McGregor would have taken up the name after Neeson’s character’s death at the hands of Darth Maul.
“It’s interesting how things evolve,” McCaig said of designing the characters’ appearances. “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.”
The twist would have been kind of nuts, and the first things that come to my mind are quibbling nitpicks: Wouldn’t all the people on the Jedi Council be all like “Hey, you’re not Obi-Wan!” Yaddle and Ki-Adi-Mundi would never stand for this. It’s reminiscent of some of the other name weirdness from before Star Wars fully calcified as an intellectual property Death Star—Alec Guinness going incognito as “Ben” Kenobi and calling Vader “Darth” like it’s his name when they meet. I also just really love the name “Obi-Wan Kenobi” being some kind of title that gets passed down from mentor to apprentice, like the Nite Owl or something.
But who cares, this is Star Wars. Nothing in the setting makes sense anthropologically or economically—there’s multiple entire planets made of city! A guy can have a funky name change if he wants, and I think this would have been rad as hell.
It makes me think of the Principal and the Pauper from The Simpsons, where Skinner’s revealed to have adopted the identity of an MIA comrade from Vietnam, or the end of Metal Gear Solid 5, with Venom Snake realizing his true relationship to Big Boss. It would have been weird and memorable, a perfect capstone to the weird and memorable Phantom Menace, while also having some real thematic resonance with Anakin Skywalker’s own fated name change.
This certainly isn’t the worst abandoned George Lucas idea we’ve heard of. The original interview is tragically gone with the wiping out of Game Informer’s online archive, but you can still read on the Wayback Machine about how the legendary director supposedly wanted to name The Force Unleashed’s Starkiller either “Darth Icky” or “Darth Insanius.”
“The team threw a Hail Mary to George, saying the game would have more credibility if the apprentice had a ‘Darth’ title,” a former LucasArts employee told Game Informer. “He threw out ‘Darth Icky’ and ‘Darth Insanius.’ There was a pregnant pause in the room after that. People waiting for George to say ‘just kidding,’ but it never comes, and he just moved on to another point.”
