‘Star Wars’ artist reveals George Lucas cut a mind-boggling Obi-Wan twist from ‘The Phantom Menace’

If you strike him down, Obi-Wan Kenobi will become more powerful than you could possibly imagine — and he might pass his name on in a confusing manner.

Concept and storyboard artist Iain McCaig revealed a bizarre twist from Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace that director George Lucas ultimately cut from the movie at the last minute. The twist involves a naming switch-up between Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and his Jedi master Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson), who perishes at the hand of Darth Maul (Ray Park) at the conclusion of the divisive prequel.

“It’s interesting how things evolve,” McCaig told StarWars.com. “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 wouldn’t actually change much about the overall Star Wars lore, but McCaig thinks that it clarifies a comment by the aged Obi-Wan in the original 1977 Star Wars. “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….'” the artist explained. “Because he’s not Obi-Wan, he’s Qui-Gon. And right at the end, George changed it.”

McCaig’s telling doesn’t quite add up, however. If McGregor’s character was originally named Qui-Gon Jinn and then adopted the name of his fallen master at the end of The Phantom Menace… then he still would have gone by Obi-Wan Kenobi for the rest of his life, right? If he takes on the mantle of Obi-Wan Kenobi, why would he be surprised to hear that name? The more surprising name to hear in A New Hope would be Qui-Gon Jinn, because if McCaig is correct, then Qui-Gon is the name he hasn’t heard in a long time, not Obi-Wan.

Regardless of the Guinness wrinkle, though, the supposed Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan switcheroo would have made for a very different Phantom Menace viewing experience for audiences in 1999. If Lucas hadn’t changed his mind, then Episode I and its deluge of marketing would have led audiences to believe that Neeson’s Jedi master was Obi-Wan, which means everyone would assume that he’ll eventually age into Guinness’ version of the character, making him safe from harm. And if everyone thought Neeson was unkillable, then his climactic death would be significantly more shocking. (Although it’d be tough to explain why the very Scottish McGregor spent the entire movie doing a perfect impression of Guinness’ English accent without giving away the twist.)

Neeson also makes more sense as the presumptive predecessor to Guinness’ character from an age standpoint — he was 43 when Phantom Menace released in 1999, and Guinness was 63 when Star Wars hit theaters in 1977. Since Phantom Menace takes place about 30 years before A New Hope, it tracks that Neeson could reach Guinness’ wizened, gray-haired look by the time he gets a visit from Luke Skywalker. 

McGregor, on the other hand, ends up looking about 30 or 40 years younger than Guinness in 2005’s Revenge of the Sith, which only takes place about 19 years before A New Hope (and still looks pretty spry in the spin-off Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi, which takes place less than 10 years before A New Hope). Obi-Wan must have fallen into some dire straits to end up looking like Guinness. 

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Star Wars eventually did have a key character adopt the name of their fallen master in, as of 2024, the last line ever spoken in a theatrical Star Wars project. Rey (Daisy Ridley), who is never given a last name, takes on the surname Skywalker in the final scene of 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker after her master Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) died defending the Resistance in the previous movie.