How George Lucas’ Original Anakin Backstory Differs From The Prequels
George Lucas had a basic outline for Darth Vader’s backstory before Return of the Jedi, and there are some noticeable differents between the original plan and what audiences eventually got in the Star Wars prequels. Although A New Hope is the first-ever Star Wars movie, George Lucas always made sure to point out that the film was supposed to be the middle part of a much bigger story. However, it was not until 16 years after Return of the Jedi that Lucas finally got to make Episodes I, II, and III.
As much as George Lucas had planned the saga, some of the most important twists in the original trilogy were later additions to the story. Darth Vader was not Luke’s father until one of the final drafts of The Empire Strikes Back, and the “there is another” line was not initially meant to refer to Leia. Still, by Return of the Jedi, Star Wars had already laid down a lot of backstory and worldbuilding, which would be expanded with the now Legends novels and comics.
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Despite famous Expanded Universe stories like the Thrawn Trilogy, the most crucial expansion of the Star Wars saga came with Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, a movie that brought the franchise back to the big screen and revealed the origins of Anakin Skywalker. However, George Lucas had already presented his ideas for Anakin’s backstory 18 years earlier to producers and writers involved in Return of the Jedi. In the pitch made public by the bookThe Star Wars Archives: 1999-2005, Lucas outlines what the past of Anakin and Obi-Wan had been like, and a lot of those ideas can be found in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. However, there were also major differences in
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