George Lucas' Original Backstory for Anakin Skywalker in the STAR WARS Saga Revealed
It’s no surprise that George Lucas had Anakin Skywalker’s backstory all planned out long before he made the Star Wars prequel films and The Clone Wars. It would be a very long time before fans got to see this character’s backstory play out, but there were a few people who knew what the plans would entail.
He actually shared this information with three people during a story a story conference for Return of the Jedi back in 1981. Those people included director Richard Marquand, producer Howard Kazanjian, and writer Lawrence Kasdan.
The details of this meeting were shared in the new book The Star Wars Archives: 1995-2005, and as you’ll see, Lucas’ original plans for the character stay very close to what we actually ended up seeing in the prequel films. There are a few little differences, but nothing major.
The book author Paul Duncan shared all of this on his own Twitter, and it came with the following note: “July 13-17, 1981: This is George Lucas explaining to Richard Marquand, Howard Kazanjian, and Lawrence Kasdan the background for Anakin, Obi-Wan and the Emperor during a story conference for Return of the Jedi, so they have context for the end of the movie.”
There is one interesting and funny note that I want to point out, and that’s when Lucas compares Palpatine’s rise to power and his undermining of power and authority of the government to Richard Nixon.
You can find the full passage below detailing Lucas’ pitch during the story conference for Return of the Jedi:
Anakin Skywalker began hanging out with the Emperor, who at that point nobody knew was that bad, because he was an elected official. He was a politician. Richard M. Nixon was his name. He subverted the senate and finally took over and he was really evil. But he pretended to be a really nice guy. Luke’s father gets subverted by the Emperor. He gets a little weird at home and his wife begins to figure out that things are going wrong and she confides in Ben, who is his mentor.
On his missions through the galaxies, Anakin has been going off and doing his Jedi thing and a lot of Jedi have been getting killed - and it’s because they turn their back on him and he cuts them down. The President is turning into the Emperor and Luke’s mother suspects that something has happened to her husband. She is pregnant. Anakin gets worse and worse, and finally Ben has to fight him and he throws him down into a volcano and Vader is all beat up.
When he falls into the pit there is hardly anything left of him by the time the Emperor’s troops fish him out of the drink. Then when Ben finds out that Vader has been fished out and is in the hands of the Empire, he is worried. He goes back to Vader’s wife and explains that Anakin is the bad guy, the one killing all the Jedi.
Mrs. Skywalker has had the kids, the twins, two little babies who are six months old or so. The Skywalker line is very strong with the Force, so Ben says, “I think we should protect the kids, because they may be able to to help us right the wrong that your husband has created in the universe.” Ben takes one and gives him to a couple out there on Tatooine and he gets his little hideout in the hills and he watches him grow. Ben can’t raise Luke himself because he’s a wanted man. Leia and Luke’s mother go to Alderaan and are taken by the king there, who is a friend of Ben’s. She dies shortly thereafter and Leia is brought up by her foster parents. She knows that her real mother died.
I think you can make Ben take the blame for Vader. “I should have given him more training. I should have sent him to Yoda, but I thought I could be as good a teacher as Yoda. I wish that I could stop the pestilence that I’ve unleashed on the galaxy.” His burden is that he feels responsible for everything that Vader has done.
What are your thoughts on Lucas’ Anakin Skywalker’s backstory?