Star Wars: The Phantom Menaceturned 25 years old earlier this year, and to celebrate this momentous occasion (that definitely doesn’t make me feel old) the officialStar Warssite has been pumping out some fun articles about the film’s development.
The most recent of these is an interview with the one and only Iain McCaig, who is quite possibly one of the most talented and prolific concept artists in modern cinema.
McCaig has worked on so many incredible films that listing them all simply isn’t feasible, but a few of his most famous projects includeTerminator 2: Judgment Day,Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and several Marvel films such asAvengers: EndgameandGuardians of the Galaxy.
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He also did the concept artwork for the firstTitanfallgame so you know this dude is legit.
He’s perhaps most well-known for his work on the Star Wars franchise though. McCaig has worked on all three of the prequel films,Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens, and theObi-Wan Kenobiminiseries.
In his interviewdetailing his work onThe Phantom Menace, McCaig dropped a bit of a bombshell out of nowhere that kind of recontextualises the entire Star Wars franchise.
As he explains, the roles of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn were reversed in the original script for the movie.
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“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…”
The most baffling thing about this change is that, as McCaig points out, the original ending would have actually tied intoStar Wars: Episode IV – A New Hopein an extremely satisfying way.
“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.”
Man, George Lucas seems like his own worst enemy sometimes because I think this original ending absolutely slaps and I have no idea why he opted to change it at the last minute.
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Somebody go back in time and tell Lucas he was cooking with this ending before he changed it, because I want to live in that timeline.
Topics:Star Wars,Disney
