As revealed by Gary Kurtz (the producer of “Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope” and “Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back”) back in 1999, George Lucas initially intended to explore the first Jedi in the prequel trilogy instead of showing us Anakin Skywalker’s origins. The original plan was to have considerable time jumps between the stories. Audiences would be let in on the formation of the Jedi Order in the first prequel film. Episode II was going to be about Obi-Wan Kenobi and his early days as a Jedi, showing us how he learned the ways of the Force, while the film that became “Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith” would shift the focus to the beginning of Darth Vader.
Of course, while that didn’t come to pass, some of the core elements of Lucas’ original blueprint remained, with the prequel trilogy looking into an early era of the Jedi Order before it was wiped out with the help of Darth Vader. Obi-Wan Kenobi eventually got his own show rather than a film, and as for going back to the earliest days of the Force and its discovery, that’s a story that is now finally going to be told by James Mangold, who will be directing one of the three big films set to be added to the “Star Wars” franchise in the future.
