Could Alec Guinness be too old as Obiwan?


Nope, not in the least. Rather than go on and on about how the desert weather has aged the Jedi, I'll do a simple analysis of ages.

Alec Guinness was born April 2, 1914 (Source), which means by the time of ep 4, which would have been filmed around 1976 (released in 1977), Alec Guinness was 62.


Unfortunately, I dont have a link to show Obiwan's age in Ep 1 (any help here would be hot), however the consensus seems to be that he was 25.

That means in Ep 2 he was 35, and in Ep 3, 38 years old.

According to the timeline at the Del Ray website, Ep 3 is approximately 20 years before ep 4 (although, some would say 19).

That would make Obi-wan 58 during ep 4. 58 is NOT such a large gap to 62. Alec Guinness is not too old at all. Or, I guess the more correct thing to say is that Obiwan was NOT made too young in ep 1.

So, you see, Alec Guinness is only 4-5 years older than Obi-wan's established age as set by Episode 1.

As to why Han Solo calls Obi-wan an 'old fossil'? Well, the Jedi are somewhat of an old taboo, and considering Han didn't know exactly how old he was anyway he wouldn't have been too unjustified in calling him that.