Mark Hamill will be about 63, Ford will be about 73 and Fisher will be closing in on 57 by the time cameras roll on principal photography. As much as I revere their characters we have to face facts: they're not spry action heroes anymore. Harrison Ford barely made it through the last Indiana Jones film without looking like he needed to take a nap and rub on some Lanacane. Han, Luke and Leia will no doubt be leading and major characters in any storyline set 30 years after Jedi, but I sort of have my doubts that there are going to be many glitzy, frenetic action scenes for most of them.
I'm just hoping they can sign Hayden Christensen... after all Star Wars is Anakin's saga and I think he can carry a Redemption Trilogy as a force ghost.
Kinda makes you wonder why 'Old Ben' didn't just bounce off a wall, flip over Vader's head, take the decrepit brat out, pick off a few Troopers, force slam the blast door and warm up the Falcon.
Part of it had to do with Alec Guinness himself not being the most physically adept aging actor at the time that was shot. Lucas also said that he wanted to demonstrate that Obi-Wan was in his waning years and not up to speed and Vader was a part-machine shadow of his former self, both men slowed and hobbled by their physical conditions at the time of the Death Star duel. I think it was always his intention that the lightsaber battle in the first movie would be kind of clunky and confined to that one section of the landing bay, in part to give it a more claustrophobic feel with Obi-Wan cornered and not really able to get away even if he wanted to.
Just my two cents' worth based on things I've read and heard over the years. I think the battle is rather effective considering Obi-Wan was just going to sacrifice himself and become one with the Force to provide Luke and the others time to escape. And Vader seems more of a tragic character when you see that he's no longer the athletic, jumping and lithe Jedi Knight he once was.
The criticism got to Lucas. He found it difficult to be creative when people were calling him a jerk. “It was fine before the Internet,” he says. “But now with the Internet, it’s gotten very vicious and very personal. You just say, ‘Why do I need to do this?’ ”
Honestly that Vader/Obi-Wan fight is the one scene in ANH that I would be okay with if they did a CGI-redo to.
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