masetodd

I was lurking on the starwars.com website and found something that mentioned Obi-Wan was 25 years old at the time of Phantom Menace.

Can someone who is familiar with the 6-movie timeline figure out old old he is in ANH?

I thought Ep1 was only 30 years before Ep4? If this is the case, then Obi-Wan is only 55. Damn! He sure didn't age well!!

bboisvert

The 30 year gap is between Episode III and IV. So, if there's 10 years between I + II and a couple of years between II + III... Obi would be in his late 60s in ANH.

Shannon Nutt

Interesting point. We know only about 20 years pass between the END of the new trilogy and the beginning of the old one, since Luke is 20 or so in A NEW HOPE. I don't see how Obi-Wan could be any older than 35 when the Skywalker twins are born.

Shannon Nutt

As I pointed out...there can only be a 20 year gap, since Luke IS NOWHERE near 30 at the beginning of A NEW HOPE. I believe it's already been established that there's only a few years between Episodes II and III, so AT BEST, Obi Wan can only be in his late 50's or very early 60's during the time of A NEW HOPE.

bboisvert

Oh, crap. Good point. I didn't even think of that.

You're right. Those ages don't work out at all.


And that would make Sebastian Shaw about 40 in RotJ? No f-ing way.

Is there any fanboy thread/explanation of this anywhere? Those timeframes really make no sense at all.

BrewCrew

Maybe the two suns on tantooine ages the skin quicker. Take a look at Owen and Beru. They look pretty old in ANH but they are younger than Ben.

RoboDad

I'm just really curious if any of you realize that Alec Guiness was only 61/62 when ANH was filmed. Even with the assumed timelines and ages from the prequels, that's only a 6-7 year difference in age between the actor and the character.

You all make it sound as if he was 80 when they made the movie.

[edited to add...]
I just did some checking, and I found out that, unlike Alec Guiness, Sebastian Shaw really was nearly 80 when ROTJ was filmed. I guess the dark side really does take its toll on the Sith, doesn't it?

DonnachaOne

He is twice as old as half his age...

RoboDad

Aren't we all...

BrewCrew

Lucas kind of fixed this though by taking the ghost of Sebastian Shaw out and putting Hayden in. The way his face looks when Luke takes off his mask can be explained I imagine after watching ROTS.

bboisvert

Without starting a bashing of Lucas or anything, I guess I was asking why this NEEDED fixing. I mean, Lucas wrote the damn thing. When he cast Shaw in RotJ, wasn't he aware that the actor was about twice the age of the character he was supposed to be playing?

Did Lucas change the timeframe of the prequels when he went back to make them? And, if so, why?

BrewCrew

I guess that is the problem with making three prequels, because there is bound to be problems with continuity. I am not saying I am for or against any changes he made but after making the prequels he probably did realize it was not very logical having a 80 year old guy playing Anakin.

Class316

Actually Luke is near 30 in ANH (Hamill was 26 in 1977)


I

10

II

3

III

20

IV

3

V

1

VI

If Obi is 25 in ep I that would make him 58 in ANH (I guess living on the run and in hiding for 20 years makes you age more)

Anakin was 9 in ep I. So Darth would be 46 in ROTJ

masetodd

While we're talking about the age thing, Yoda was only 26 years younger in Ep2 from Ep5. If he was 900 (??) years old or so in Empire, then he would be 875-ish is AOTC. He must've really aged quick also - he went from a flipping, spinning, little sprite to a decrepit old toad.

The starwars.com answer would be something like, "the stress of being the last Jedi and hiding from the Empire aged Ben and Yoda quicker" or some baloney like that.

Personally, I think the answer is that Lucas just didn't do his math that well.

Class316

He was also an old toad in ep I and II, limping with a cane. The only time he was flipping and spinning was when he was using the force. He doesn't use the force all the time. Plus at his age it takes a lot out of him. So that's why at 800+ he did more teaching than anything else.

cactusoly

A thing nobody ever figured is that everbody comes from different worlds so their biology is probably different as well. Perfect explaination for the age difference between Anakin and Padme in Ep 1 and 2 (in 2 they look closer in age) So Anakin probably ages faster. One off the wall theory is that Yoda is actuall human ... its just that what humans look like at 900.

Fok

wow, so much to think about!

Class316

People on the same planet can age differently. Example: Earth. I know two 40 year olds, one of them does not look a day over 30, and the other one looks so much older than 40 that she could easily pass for the mother of the first one.

Yoda is human? umm...no chance

lizard

Exactly right. Shocking as it might seem in this day of hair dye and botox, but it is quite common for fifty-somethings to have gray hair and wrinkles.

With Alec Guinness being ~62 when Star Wars was filmed, he looks as if he could very well be in the 55-58 age range of Obi-Wan.