When George Lucas set out to make Star Wars, he didn't have some grand nine-movie plan laid out. A New Hope went through countless iterations, as did The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi; by the time the prequels rolled around, that story was told, and Lucas had to figure out how to tell what came before them.
There were continuity issues and contradictions (Princess Leia's memory of her mother, for example), but for the most part, The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith effectively sit alongside the original trilogy.
The biggest challenge for the filmmaker was taking Anakin Skywalker from the likeable young boy we met on Tatooine to the despicable Sith Lord, Darth Vader. That transformation didn't happen until Episode III's final moments; however, fans have long blamed Obi-Wan Kenobi for the horrors later inflicted by Vader on the Galaxy because he failed to make sure his former Padawan was dead.
During their lightsaber duel on Mustafar, Kenobi cut off Anakin's arm and legs, leaving him to burn. Emperor Palpatine arrived just in time to save his new apprentice, using the Empire's technology to create more-machine-than-man Darth Vader.
Talking to Empire (via SFFGazette.com), veteran Star Wars franchise producer Rick McCallum shared his take on why Obi-Wan left Anakin behind without delivering a definitive killing blow as his former ally burned before his eyes.
"I also think he doesn't believe Anakin will recover - he thinks he's going to die," he explains. "It's only because Palpatine comes in and uses everything to save him and create this freak [that he survives]."
Elsewhere in the magazine's feature, Hayden Christensen reflected on being cast as Anakin and admitted he didn't expect to ever land the coveted role.
"I was 18, and I got a call from my agent saying that they were casting for Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars and I thought, 'Wow, how cool.' But it just seemed too big," the actor recalls. "And I remember asking my agent, 'Is there maybe another role that they're also casting right now that you can put me up for? Because Anakin sort of seems unattainable.' And there was not. So I threw my name in the hat like everyone else."
In recent years, we've seen Christensen return to the role of Anakin/Vader in both Obi-Wan Kenobi and Ahsoka. The former explored the emotional and mental toll that the fight on Mustafar had on "Ben," later reuniting the friends-turned-enemies for a confrontation which addressed the apparent plot holes Lucas created.
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