Once Upon a Time, Obi-Wan Kenobi Didn’t Die in ‘Star Wars: A New Hope’

Alec Guinness in the original ‘Star Wars’ (Lucasfilm)

Star Wars fans are well aware that the saga that takes place in a galaxy far, far away originally looked a little different on the page than it did on the screen. While he was developing the Jedi narrative for the movie that would eventually become known as 1977′s Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope, creator George Lucas tinkered with certain details throughout a series of script drafts.

Peter Mayhew, a.k.a. Chewbacca, has been having some fun recently by tweeting out pages from one of those drafts, dated 1/1/76. This week, Mayhew shared something that some lovers of the franchise may not have realized: that in this early version of Episode IV, Obi-Wan Kenobi (played by Alec Guinness) does not perish during that fateful light saber duel with Darth Vader aboard the first Death Star.

In the pages that Mayhew posted, one can read a version of Star Wars in which Ben Kenobi not only survives his confrontation with Vader, but, with Luke’s help, goes on to slice his way through a swath of Stormtroopers and join his allies on the escaping Millennium Falcon. (i09 also notes that this version of the script describes Vader as a “Sith,” a word that would not actually be used in a Star Wars movie until the prequels were released.)

Technically, this information has been out there for those who were curious enough to look. Starkiller, a website named after Lucas’ original surname for Luke Skywalker, has posted numerous drafts of the Star Wars scripts, including a copy of that January 1976 screenplay that can be downloaded for those eager to read the whole thing.

But in a way though, isn’t it better to hear about what might have been for Obi-Wan directly from Chewie himself?

Watch an original ‘Star Wars’ trailer: