OBI-WAN BEATS VADER, HAN PACKS A LIGHTSABER.
AND LUKE USED TO BE A GIRL. AN EXCLUSIVE LOOK
AT THE ORIGINS OF THE STAR WARS UNIVERSE
In 1973 George Lucas began drafting what would become Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. His original vision was an homage to the Saturday-matinee space operas of his youth, and it's still there in the final execution, though buried under several layers of dirt, effects and 1970s-era cool. In honor of the movie's 30th anniversary, in May, Random House will release The Making of Star Wars, a comprehensive look at the genesis of the film that launched a thousand geeks. Packed with production minutiae, rare interviews and
on-set photos, it shows the radical evolution from Lucas's original concepts to the iconic finished product. Early illustrations are more Buck Rogers than Akira Kurosawa, with a youngish Obi-Wan Kenobi looking Travolta-esque, sporting a Staying Alive headband and Kenny Loggins beard. More shocking than the disco look is a set of never-published Death Star storyboards (pictured right) showing Obi-Wan surviving his encounter with Darth Vader. The Jedi's self-sacrifice is a linchpin of the films' plots, of course, not to mention of our understanding of the Force, which nerds have been debating ever since. The idea of Obi-Wan surviving the escape from the Death Star is a blasphemous footnote to Lucas's masterpiece. But damn if it's not a fun one.
LUCAS'S CHARACTER CONCEPTS CONSTANTLY EVOLVED BETWEEN 1973 AND THE FILM'S 1077 RELEASE. TOP LEFT: EARLY CONCEPT ART BY RALPH MCQUARRIE SHOWS VERY DIFFERENT VERSIONS OF HAN SOLO (WITH LIOHTSABER), CHEWBACCA. C-3P0, P2-02 AND A FEMALE (I) VERSION OF LUKE. THE SKETCH ABOVE REPRESENTS LUCAS'S THINKINB ON THE LOOK FOR "BEN KENOBI" AS INSPIRED BY HIS CONSIDERATION OF ALEC GUINNESS.
