The unrevised version of the fourth draft of Star Wars (ANH)

Yeah, that's what i guess too. Just wondering why they made it up or where these rumors may have come from.

Especially because they also mentioned ANH's Anchorhead scenes in the same article. Of course the writer(s) may have simply have read the novelizations. But in this case, there's still some problem with their reasoning, considering that the one for ROTJ had the longer dialogue between Luke and Obi Wan in it, but the ending is identical to the movie.

 

I don't know how old you are, but the 90's era of Star Wars was insane. Any tiny little tidbit, whether founded in reality or not, because some sort of magazine article.

 

I was a teenager back than and yes these were really great times to be a fan, especially when the Thrawn trilogy was finally released

 

I miss STAR WARS INSIDER not being aimed solely at children. It was an actual magazine back in 95, like STARLOG and several others.

 

That's still happening today.
But now thanks to social media, one magazine article can create a huge chain reaction....

 

There a few other differences in it besides Obi-Wan surviving. For that matter, there is no one named Obi-Wan in it. Ben Kenobi is only ever called Ben. Ben specifically tells Luke that the Emperor turned Vader into a Sith. Nowhere is it said that Luke’s father is actually dead. Ben's explanation of Vader’s fall and what happened to the father is so tortuous that you can't really nail down who did what to whom exactly.

Ben was to have been a co-presenter in the Rebel briefing along with Dodonna. Dodonna is not specifically described. As a kid I always thought Dodonna looked like Obi-Wan. And with this information it doesn't seem likely that the idea was to have two white-bearded men taking turns explaining the mission. Which makes me wonder just when Alex McCrindle was cast.

Rinzler doesn't give specific dates for his appearance on set, but seems to imply it was around May of 1976. The pages featuring Ben's death are dated to April 19.

 

Yeah, as i said before, a lot of things in the fourth draft are actually more in line with the prequels than the finished movies (without their special edition changes), with the exception of Obi Wan just being Ben.

Especially how Vader's fall was explained, the lore about lightsabers (or laser swords) and the mentioning of taxes

Gesendet von meinem TA-1053 mit Tapatalk

 

Lucas has for years referred to Lightsabers as Laser Swords. You can even hear him do it in the commentaries for the films he worked on.

 

Tarkin says, “This operation (finding the rebel base) will secure my place on the Emperor’s council. With the right maneuvering, I could be Emperor.”

Tarkin outright stating he wants to be Palpatine’s successor. Something suggested but never outright stated in sources published since 1977.

Obi-Wan living also probably would mean that Force Ghosts wouldn’t exist. I think George came up with Force Ghosts to avoid having to remove “Use The Force, Luke” from the movie.

In the rough draft, it’s stated that the Empire was proceeded by the “Old Empire” that was ruled by a benevolent Emperor who the Jedi were the bodyguards of. Later drafts mention a Republic instead. The prologue of novelization says that Palpatine was “President of the Republic” before becoming Emperor and proceeds to imply that he’s still Emperor when the events of ANH occur, but Obi-Wan talksd about “the later corrupt Emperors”. Tarkin announced the abolition of the Imperial Senate like in the movie, but he later informs the Senate that he destroyed Alderaan. In the unrevised 4th draft, he says that the Emperor is informing the Senate of Alderaan’s destruction.

 

There were other references to previous Emperors in an earlier draft of the novelization that Lucas asked Alan Dean Foster to take out. Evidently that one slipped through. Would be interesting if the original draft was published someday, since Alan Dean Foster showed a photo of the manuscript in a recent memoir.

 

I wonder what these other references were. Were any of these other references in the prologue?

 

Good question. The manuscript isn't public so I don't know. I only know they exist because Charles Lippincott (RIP) posted a transcript of the conversation between Lucas, himself, and Foster about revising the draft novelization on his website.