Did George Lucas really base Owen Lars on an important person in his own life?
Why exactly does Owen hate the Jedi so much?
Let's dive into Owen Lars' backstory to find out.
It took years for "Star Wars" to get from George Lucas's brain to the big screen, and
in that time, many of the director's original ideas underwent some pretty drastic changes.
The nonfiction book "The Making of Star Wars: The Definitive Story Behind the Original Film"
details how the scripts evolved over three major drafts.
Though his part ended up being relatively small, Uncle Owen was always intended to be
part of the saga.
In Lucas's rough draft, he and his wife, Beru, are anthropologists stationed on Yavin.
This might be a nod to the career Lucas may have ended up with if he hadn't chosen to
make movies instead.
Lucas enrolled in Modesto Junior College, where he studied anthropology, among other
subjects.
He quickly transferred to film school at the University of Southern California, but his
involvement with the "Indiana Jones" franchise makes it clear that he never really lost interest
in the subject.
In the second draft, Owen is a Jedi who, along with Beru, is tasked with caring for a set
of twins — Biggs and Windy — whose roles in the "Star Wars" universe ended up getting
cut down to background characters.
During this draft, however, Lucas introduced the idea of the Lars' taking in a young, orphaned
Luke Skywalker.
By the third draft, Owen Lars becomes the humble moisture farmer we know him as today.
Owen Lars may have spent the majority of his life on Tatooine, but his own story begins
elsewhere in the galaxy.
Owen was born to Cliegg Lars and his first wife, Aika, who does not appear in the films.
According to the "Star Wars Character Encyclopedia: Updated and Expanded," the family of three
lived on the Core World planet of Ator until she died of an unspecified cause.
Cliegg and Owen return home to the family's ancestral moisture farm on Tatooine, where
the father teaches his son the trade.
"Star Wars" canon doesn't specify how old Owen is at this point, but these events transpired
before he met his eventual wife, Beru, and early enough for him to have considered Shmi
Skywalker a stepmother.
Cliegg frees Shmi from Watto's slavery, after which point she marries him and returns to
the homestead.
Owen learns that he has a stepbrother, Anakin.
"I had a feeling you might show up someday."
When a band of Tusken Raiders captured Shmi, Cliegg gathers 30 farmers to rescue her.
Nearly all are killed in the effort.
Sensing his mother's distress, Anakin and Padme arrive on Tatooine, at which point the
young Jedi goes to look for Shmi.
He finds her in time to share a final moment with her, then slaughters the Tusken Raiders
and returns to the Lars' moisture farm with her body.
Owen, still a young man, has to mourn the loss of a second mother-figure, then his own
father, who dies of a broken heart shortly thereafter.
Owen Lars marries Beru Whitesun, a third-generation moisture farmer herself, and the young couple
assumes management of the Lars homestead after Cliegg's passing.
They expect to start a family and carry on their families' traditions, but sadly, they
discover they aren't able to have children of their own.
In a short story from "Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View," we learn that Beru and Owen
consider using the services of a fertility droid.
There are some to be found at Mos Eisley, but Beru decides against it as Mos Eisley
is too dangerous a place to order a drink, let alone to conceive a baby.
"Only watch your step.
This place can be a little rough."
When Obi-Wan Kenobi approaches with the infant Luke Skywalker at the end of "Star Wars: Revenge
of the Sith," both Beru and Owen have reservations.
Beru suspects the miracle baby that suddenly appeared before her is too good to be true
and knows that there is an inherent risk to taking a child associated with the Jedi.
Owen has a strong distaste for the Jedi stemming from everything that has happened concerning
Shmi and Anakin.
However, Beru falls in love with the baby the moment Obi-Wan puts the swaddled Luke
in her arms.
After his terrible start in life, Beru just wants to make Luke happy — although Owen
fears he'll turn out to be too much like his father.
From what we see of Owen Lars and Obi-Wan Kenobi, they're barely acquaintances and Owen
doesn't hold Old Ben in high regard.
In fact, he actively keeps Obi-Wan away from Luke as much as possible, and not without
reason.
In a series of "Star Wars" comics from 2015, we learn that Owen believes his stepbrother
to be dead.
He is angry with the Jedi for letting him fall to the dark side, and he directly blames
Obi-Wan, who trained him.
In "Star Wars" #15, Owen accuses Obi-Wan of being the one who got Anakin killed.
It's implied he suspects that Obi-Wan may even be the one who killed him.
Though Owen accepts responsibility for the boy because Beru wants a family, he refuses
to allow Obi-Wan to train him as a Jedi.
Owen's distrust of Force users goes back to the depression his stepmother, Shmi, suffered
after the Jedi Order took her only son away from her.
The Lars' chief concerns aren't the Empire or the Jedi.
They only want to eke out a happy life with little Luke while avoiding the corruption
and danger posed by the Hutts as much as possible.
Just because Owen tells Obi-Wan to stay away doesn't mean he listens.
Surely Obi-Wan feels as much responsibility for Anakin's son as Owen and Beru did, and
he also holds out hope that the Skywalker line might still bring the prophesized balance
to the Force and peace to the galaxy.
Obi-Wan watches as Luke grows up and shows great Force-wielding potential and even finds
a way to get him spare parts when he wrecks Owen's skyhopper.
But of much greater importance, he protects Luke, Owen, and Beru from threats they didn't
even know existed.
In one plotline from the 2015 run of comics, Owen admits that he knows Obi-Wan is the reason
his farm is the only one never attacked by Hutts or Tusken Raiders.
Owen doesn't permit Luke to train under Obi-Wan Kenobi, but he does give him an education
that serves him his whole life.
Luke's uncle teaches him everything he knows about hard work, discipline, self-defense,
and mechanical engineering.
In one of a series of Korean Webtoons published prior to "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," Uncle
Owen teaches a young Luke how to use a blaster rifle, and permits his nephew to learn to
pilot his equipment.
Though Luke repeatedly insists he wants to get off Tatooine and do anything besides be
a moisture farmer, Owen raises him to be a self-reliant individual and prepares him for
a difficult future.
Finally, Owen's rejection of the Jedi and Sith and his ability to carve out a sense
of right and wrong on his own likely had a profound impact on Luke Skywalker.
After all, Luke never finishes his training with Yoda, choosing to fight at his friends'
side instead.
A learned skepticism of the Jedi may explain his mindset when we meet up with him again
in "Star Wars: The Last Jedi."
After all, Luke wouldn't be the man he becomes without his uncle.
Since Luke Skywalker is born into the Empire's reign, he wants to be what any little boy
would've wanted to be when they grew up: an Imperial pilot.
It seems ridiculous to imagine in hindsight, but young Luke desperately wants to go to
the Imperial Academy.
The Empire is never very popular among regular folks across the galaxy.
Some families would want their offspring to graduate from the highest-ranking Academy
branches and become officers, while other parents would see service as a threat.
To be clear, Luke isn't necessarily pro-Empire.
When C3PO brings up the Rebel Alliance in relation to the hologram of Leia, Luke is
enthusiastic and curious.
But until those circumstances play out, Luke sees the Academy as his only ticket off of
Tatooine and his chance to fly.
As a younger man, he would often complain to Owen and Beru that most of his friends
have already joined.
But Owen keeps putting him off, convincing him to stay at the farm.
Without Uncle Owen, Luke may well have ended up on the other side.
"You can go to the Academy next year.
You must understand that I need you here, Luke."
Except for a few scenes, the "Star Wars" movies are pretty tame.
One moment that falls squarely outside of the realm of family-friendly is when Luke
returns home to find that his Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru burned to death, with their property
still on fire.
He and Obi-Wan realized shortly before that the Empire could trace the droids back to
the Lars family through the Jawas, from whom they'd been purchased.
Thankfully, we don't witness this brutal scene, but we can assume that the Lars died because
they wouldn't give up information.
During a dinner conversatlion in "Star Wars: A New Hope" in which Luke reveals Princess
Leia's hidden transmission, Owen and Beru make it obvious through their sideways glances
at each other that they know more than they let on.
However, Owen also lets it slip that Obi-Wan had been acquainted with his father, which
is what piques Luke's attention and spurs him into looking for Old Ben.
That's when the Empire visits the Lars homestead.
Still, the couple probably refused to talk about their nephew's whereabouts, the droids,
or the reclusive Jedi, understanding that their choice meant certain death.
In our galaxy, practically everyone knows that Darth Vader is actually Luke's father,
but Owen Lars probably died not knowing the truth about what became of his stepbrother,
Anakin Skywalker.
When Obi-Wan came to Tatooine with Anakin's newborn baby in tow, the Lars were led to
believe that the Jedi Knight had perished.
But Owen does repeatedly lament that Luke has too much of his father in him.
"You knew my father?"
"I told you to forget it."
This would seem to imply that he is aware of the fact that Anakin switches from Jedi
to Sith, and maybe even that he knows that Anakin is the man under Vader's mask.
However, very few people across the galaxy are privy to that knowledge.
A more realistic scenario is that Owen simply wants Luke to stay away from Force users altogether
to avoid a destiny like his father's.
Owen and Beru's deaths become even more heartbreaking when one realizes that it is Darth Vader — Owen's
very own stepbrother — who is hunting for the droids to put an end to the Rebel Alliance,
which is what leads to their vicious murders.
Owen Lars is a relatively minor character in the grand scheme of things, but it seems
— especially considering he was in the original rough draft — that he's one of outsized
importance to George Lucas.
Lucas had a difficult relationship with his father, George Sr., who Lucas has described
as a "domineering, ultra right-wing" proprietor of a stationery store, as reported in The
Atlantic.
The senior Lucas expected his junior to follow precisely in his footsteps.
When his son chose to study film instead, their relationship became strained.
Lucas readily admits that all of his films are, in a way, about fathers and sons, and
many are about young men trying to break free of unideal situations.
"Is there anything I might do to help?"
"Well, not unless you can alter time, speed up the harvest, or teleport me off this rock."
The tension between them is certainly reflected in Uncle Owen, and in Luke's eagerness to
get off of Tatooine and avoid a future spent moisture farming.
"Star Wars" is about a boy who escapes the mundane for a great adventure, but in the
brief time Lucas spends on Luke and Uncle Owen, it's apparent that he's also working
out his feelings about the home and the family he left behind.
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