BACK ONCE AGAIN FOR THE RENEGADE MASTER

AHEAD OF OBI-WAN’S NEW TV SHOW, SFX CELEBRATES STAR WARS’ ORIGINAL JEDI KNIGHT

- RICHARD EDWARDS

HE WAS THE ORIGINAL Jedi Knight and – for all anyone knew back in 1977 – the only remaining follower of a famously hokey religion. Depending on your point of view, he was also a “crazy old man”, a hero of the Clone Wars, or the “only hope” of a fledgling Rebellion.

Whether you called him Old Ben or Obi-Wan, he explained (almost) everything we needed to know about the Jedi who were once guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic, not to mention a certain former pupil who was seduced by the Dark Side of the Force. And as he spouted a load of hippy-ish “mumbo-jumbo” (Han Solo’s words, not ours) about mystical energy fields binding the galaxy together, he turned out to be Basil Exposition in a galaxy far, far away – a job he did so well you could almost forgive the key intel about the Skywalker family tree he held back for the sequels. Almost…

Because among George Lucas’s many moments of inspiration on the original Star Wars – giving a starring role to a little-known carpenter; founding Industrial Light & Magic; keeping a hefty share of the merchandising rights – few can compete with the casting of Sir Alec Guinness as Obi-Wan Kenobi, a veteran English character actor hired to supply some gravitas among a cast of almost-unknowns. And even though Guinness remained sceptical about the words coming out of his mouth – “New rubbish dialogue reaches me every other day on wadges of pink paper,” he lamented during production – his Oscar-nominated performance ensured that a character killed off before the movie’s final act would become more powerful than we could possibly imagine.