That One Time Vader Hired An Actor To Play Obi-Wan

Would The Real Obi-Wan Please Stand Up?

By Culture SlatePublished 2 years ago • 3 min read

Did you know Darth Vader once hired an actor to play Obi-Wan Kenobi? That was one of his many plans to capture Luke Skywalker in-between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Or at least it was in the newspaper strips in the early 1980s. One of many bizarre stories told in the time before the Expanded Universe started cementing itself.

First and foremost, it's important to remember that Star Wars has always been an expanded universe for many years. It entered the realm of books, comics, and other things from day one. Marvel had the license first before it went to Dark Horse in the 90s. But while Marvel was publishing its own Star Wars comics, Star Wars comic strips also appeared in newspapers. During this time, the idea of an interconnected continuity wasn't always a priority, as lore was not something that was taken as seriously.

In these newspaper strips created by the classic team of Archie Goodwin and Al Williamson, Luke Skywalker and his friends go against Darth Vader and the Empire, encountering many weird things along the way. Fighting peculiar interdimensional beings and confronting beasts of all kinds. This story is no exception.

During his hunt for Luke, Darth Vader sets a trap for the young rebel, hiring a nameless actor to play Obi-Wan Kenobi as the bait to lure Luke in. The trap was so precise, that the actor had plastic surgery with technological advancements to look exactly like Obi-Wan and so that he could emulate Force powers. A bizarre and very comic book-like plot. This story was reprinted by Dark Horse in Classic Star Wars #11 in July 1993.

However, everything did not go as planned. The actor was taken aback by Luke's and the Rebellion's kindness and the evilness of the Empire; thus, the actor turned against Vader. The betrayal made the Dark Lord's trap a failure and thus allowing Luke to escape. Vader has set traps for Luke in the past, but obviously hiring an impersonator to play the role of Obi-Wan took the cake. It's funny that Vader would have so many outrageous plans to locate young Skywalker.

Again this is one of the weirder examples of Star Wars storytelling written during the 80s. Star Wars comics back then were allowed to really do whatever they wanted, as long as it didn't interfere with the films' story. Such bizarre stories like Vader hiring a Kenobi impersonator were more the norm of experimental Star Wars storytelling. While weird, it's a lot of fun to see an era when the sky was the limit in terms of what could be told, not being limited to a specific canon. Star Wars storytelling nowadays has lost a bit of that experimentation as they have cemented themselves in a cohesive universe. Obviously, Star Wars has done stories in new lore where Vader has tried to trap Luke Skywalker, but they tend to keep the tone a bit more in line with the films.

As Star Wars continues to expand its type of storytelling, it will likely change and evolve as things move on. What that looks like is hard to say, but always in motion the future is, and so is the future of Star Wars. That future will probably look nothing like the old newspaper strips, that is for sure. For that was a long time ago, a weird one at that.

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