Back when Obi-Wan Kenobi was announced as a miniseries on Disney+, Star Wars fans were excited to finally see what the old Jedi master had been up to during his exile on Tatooine. They were even more excited when it was announced that Ewan McGregor wasn’t the only name from the prequel trilogy that was set to come back to the galaxy far, far away: Anakin Skywalker himself, Hayden Christensen would be the one behind the mask of the franchise’s iconic villain, Darth Vader. Not only that, but fans would also get to see Kenobi (McGregor) and Vader facing off against one another once again. After all, as anyone that has seen A New Hope and The Revenge of the Sith can attest, a lightsaber battle between Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi is always a treat, whether Kenobi has the high ground or not.

But, as it turns out, a lightsaber battle between Kenobi and Vader isn’t always a good thing. Not from an entertainment point of view, of course: watching the former master and apprentice fighting each other remains just as great as it has always been. However, from a storytelling point of view, pitting Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi against each other one more time proved to be a little too complicated for Star Wars. More specifically, it created a whole problem for the franchise’s timeline and a plot hole that the most attentive fans were quick to point out: why on Earth (or on Alderaan) was Vader so shocked to meet Obi-Wan again in A New Hope if he knew very well that his old master was alive?

In a recent interview with The Decider, writer Stuart Beattie spoke of this plot hole. The man behind the original script for the planned Obi-Wan Kenobi trilogy that got scrapped in favor of the TV show, Beattie revealed details of his version of the story, including his original ending that would have avoided this late addition of a plot hole completely. How, you ask? Well, he would’ve killed Obi-Wan. Or, at least, that’s what Vader would believe…

What Is Darth Vader’s Role in ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’?

Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader fight in the 'Obi-Wan Kenobi' Disney+ series
Image via Disney+

Set in the years between the events of Star Wars — Episode III: The Revenge of the Sith and Episode IV: A New Hope, Obi-Wan Kenobi has the titular Jedi master briefly taken out of his exile on Tatooine by Senator Bail Organa (Jimmy Smits). It turns out that the senator’s adoptive daughter, and Darth Vader’s biological child, Leia (Vivien Lyra Blair), has been kidnaped, and the only person that Organa trusts to bring her back safely is Obi-Wan. Initially reluctant, Kenobi eventually agrees to help. What he doesn’t know, however, is that the whole kidnapping is part of a plan by Inquisitors to draw him out of hiding and take him down.

During his journey across the galaxy to bring Leia home to her parents, Obi-Wan crosses paths with numerous Inquisitors, Empire troopers, fake Jedi, and members of the incipient Rebel Alliance. Eventually, he comes face to face with Darth Vader himself once again. The two meet for the first time since their fateful duel on Mustafar in Episode 3 of the series. Alerted to Kenobi's presence on the planet Mapuzo, Vader tracks him down and proceeds to kill innocent bystanders in order to force him to reveal himself. Unable to allow all those people to be killed, Obi-Wan stands up to his former Padawan, and the two engage in an uneven battle that has the Jedi master nearly burned to death. Thankfully, he is saved at the last minute by Tala (Indira Varma).

Kenobi and Vader meet up once again in the series finale. This time, however, Obi-Wan is the one who overpowers his old disciple. He returns to Tatooine fully convinced that the man he once knew as Anakin has disappeared beneath the mask of Darth Vader. Meanwhile, back on Mustafar, Vader decides to abandon his search for Kenobi, leaving Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) suspicious of his allegiances.

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Why Kenobi Surviving His Encounter with Vader Makes Up for a Plot Hole?

Darth Vader fighting Reva Sevander in 'Obi-Wan Kenobi'
Image via Disney+

And therein lies the problem: if Vader merely decided to give up on hunting down Obi-Wan, why was he so shocked to feel Kenobi’s presence aboard the Death Star in A New Hope? It’s a classic scene: Vader is talking to his subordinates when, suddenly, something feels off. There is, as the saying goes, a disturbance in the Force. The Sith Lord is uneasy and says, to no one in particular, “I sense something. A presence I haven’t felt since…” before trailing off. That presence is Kenobi. It is pretty clear that Vader didn’t expect his old master to come back into his life. He probably thought he was dead, most likely killed during the Jedi massacre that took place after Order 66 or during the purge that followed the emergence of the Empire.

Beattie speaks of the “I sense something” moment in the interview as something that could only happen if Vader truly believed Kenobi to be dead. In the writer’s own words: “So I always felt that that was a moment when he suddenly realized, ‘Oh, my God, he's alive’. I mean, in the next scene, he's talking to Tarkin and Tarkin's like, 'What? No, he's dead. He's got to be dead,' you know, (but) no, no, he's alive. So I felt that was justified and really the only way that Vader would have stopped hunting Kenobi is that he believed Kenobi was dead.”

But if Vader came face to face with Kenobi just about a decade before the events of A New Hope - and Kenobi wasn’t even that old by then! -, why would he believe him to be dead? That’s one heck of a pickle that the Obi-Wan Kenobi writers got themselves into. Or should we say got the fans into? Because, in the end, the fans are the ones scratching their heads and trying to make sense of this series of events. Was there really no way for the show to feature a fight between Vader and Kenobi without damaging the timeline?

How Did the Original Script for the ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ Trilogy Ended?

Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader fight on the Death Star in 'Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope'
Image via Lucasfilm

Turns out there was. In Beattie’s original script, Vader would’ve left his fight with Kenobi fully believing him to be dead. The plan was to have the duel take place at a space station instead of on land. The station would be falling apart in the atmosphere of a large planet and the fight would culminate with Vader pushing Kenobi off into the void, his body never to be found. “They didn't get the chance to find Obi-Wan, basically”, explained Beattie. “But what was going through Obi-Wan's mind is the same thing which is, 'My brother is truly dead. He's gone. And while I absolve of that guilt because I didn't kill him, Vader killed him, I'm still just devastated. I'm absolutely devastated'."

In the writer’s opinion, having the two separated from one another at the end of the fight was essential not only to preserve Vader’s belief that Obi-Wan was dead, but also to stop Kenobi from killing Vader. On Obi-Wan and Vader's final fight, Beattie said:

“To me, if Obi-Wan has a chance to kill Darth Vader, he would do it. I mean, you know, how many countless lives would you save? Right? Especially knowing that Vader would be hunting other Jedi, which was established in the show. My film began with Vader taking on five Jedi at once and killing all of them, you know, so it established that he is the big Jedi killer. The Inquisitors are capturing them, but Vader is the big daddy who comes in and just lays waste to any Jedi all while hunting Kenobi."