Star Wars: How George Lucas almost gave Obi-Wan Kenobi a twist as big as Darth Vader's 'I am your father' reveal

George Lucas cut an amazing Obi-Wan Kenobi plot twist from The Phantom Menace that would’ve changed Star Wars forever

25 years ago, Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace arrived in theaters. It’s impossible to describe the hoopla surrounding the film’s release to anyone who wasn’t alive then. George Lucas winding back the clock to an even longer time ago in a galaxy far, far away and laying bare the Star Wars saga’s origins? Everything was about to change. Yet when The Phantom Menace finally dropped, it was relatively light on game-changing revelations.

That wasn’t always the plan, though. As the late author and editor J.W. Rinzler observed with remarkable casualness in the preface to his 2013 tome Star Wars Storyboards: The Prequel Trilogy, Lucas’ early Phantom Menace scripts included a massive plot twist. Indeed, this narrative curveball was so big, it would’ve changed the way we see Obi-Wan Kenobi – not to mention the original Star Wars trilogy – forever.