Lit Stretching the timeline

Is there anything in new canon books or comics that gives the specific time that has elapsed between the movies? I know that officially ANH occurs 19 years after ROTS, but is that mentioned anywhere other than in LF notes? Is there any reason why Luke and Leia can't be 25 in ANH? Is there any reason why the Clone Wars didn't last a decade?

The reason I ask is that Obi-wan was originally supposed to be older than 57 in ANH. I'm trying to age him up in my head-canon so that he's closer to 80 than 60!

Also, the events in ESB seem to occur fairly quickly after ANH. Any reason why ESB couldn't occur 6 months later or why ROTJ wasn't 5 years after ESB?

 

There’s very few dates given in the movies but the official time frames are very well established and come from the production. so your headcanons will conflict with the eu and possible future stories. But if you want. I don’t know why Obi-Wan needs to be older, as Alex Guinness was actually within a few years of Obi-Wan’s canonical age

 

To me Obi-wan always seemed a lot older in the OT - and as I get closer to 50, I realise that 57 isn't all that old at all!

 

To me he always seemed 70's, but from the character's age and the actor's age there was just 6 years of difference, so i think it was fine enough, though it was probably originally intended to be a longer time skip since the Jedi had fallen, or at least Obi-Wan was meant to be older when it happened.

 

Of course, you'd now run into the opposite problem of other characters aging in live action--take Katee Sackhoff's Bo-Katan in The Mandalorian, who by all rights should be around the same age as Alec Guinness's Obi-Wan, but wasn't aged up a day. Adding extra years would probably hurt more than help in some cases.

 

Good point.

 

Especially if the aging up or down changes the characters contemporaries and age peers as not the entire generation is affected but only individuals.

 

Early sources for Luke’s age in ANH range between 18 and 21 depending mostly on the decade. Also, not all sources put Luke and Leia at the same age; I’m not sure when it was established they were twins, it may have been ROTS that did that. I still have books in my collection printed before AOTC was released that put Episode III at 20BBY, which to me implies that Luke could have been 20 in ANH.

I subscribe to the idea that another 3 years can be added between AOTC and ROTS to account for the two multimedia projects, pushing TPM and its tie ins to 35BBY—most often given as the start of the Clone Wars in pre-prequel sources, now used as the starting date for GrS. In ANH, that moves Kenobi’s age to 60, Vader’s to 45, and Tarkin’s to 67.

Adding more years between ROTS and ANH to Luke’s probable maximum age of 21 adds another 2 years to everyone’s age. Kenobi is 62, Vader is 47, and Tarkin is 69.

I’m not familiar with production materials determining the gaps between ESB and ROTJ, although I keep looking. If anyone has a source they can point me to, let me know! I once saw a statement that LFL intended for Luke to have spent 18 months on Dagobah, and there to be a gap of 6 months between the duel on Bespin and the rescue of Han Solo. The statement didn’t attach a source but was apparently given by someone who had worked at WEG. Anyone know any more?

As an aside, I like how early EU works—Truce at Bakura especially—encourage the idea that humans live much longer in the GFFA and their prime lasts longer. To that end, I don’t think the criteria for young adulthood necessarily changes, but this kind of thinking can maybe help avoid generational problems with moving around Poe Dameron and Ben Skywalker’s ages. If you’re advanced for your chronological peers, why not associate with older kids instead?

 

They've been twins for as long as they've been siblings, Leia is Luke's twin sister in ROTJ.

 

Legends seemed to basically settle on the idea that elongated lifespans also correlated to elongated frames of references within lifespans, maybe just out of necessity to keep the power trio kicking around. I’d struggle to think of any film or new canon examples that hint at that, though, particularly now with the sequels showing that thirty years is… well, about thirty years. Also, aesthetic assertions about Obi-Wan specifically always seem kind of weird to me because, y’know, at some point we all have to accept that Alec Guinness just kind of looked old for his age and had a questionable hairpiece on, not a whole lot to be done there.

 

I do think Obi-Wan was intended, originally, to be heading toward 70-80 years of age as of ANH, and that ANH, TESB, and ROTJ were intended to span a period of months rather than four years. But alas, those ships have well and truly sailed at this point. As a general rule GL never seemed overly concerned with questions about how much time passed between films, how old characters were, whether those ages made sense, etc. Those details were mostly left to the EU, I think.

 

I agree, Lucas seemed to be fine with just the general feeling ot time passing rather than specific dates.

The only timeskip that was referenced in the movies (the packaging, in this case lol) is the 3 year gap between AOTC and ROTS, as the back of the box for Episode III makes it clear it's been 3 years.

Which is funny because, if anything, that is the time period that would benefit the most if one were to stretch it, because of the ammount of material that was added to the time skip since then.