While the legend of the potential casting of the iconic Kurosawa katana wielder is known and hardly breaking news, it seems that we now know why it never came to fruition. At an event in Tokyo announcing the very first Tokyo Comic Con, the legacy of Mifune was well represented by way of the late screen legend’s daughter, Mika. Joined onstage by Star Wars onscreen alumni like Ian McDiarmid and Ray Park, Mika reportedly revealed the reasoning behind his fateful rejection of the Obi-Wan role. As she recalls: Yet, ever the film fanboy, Lucas was undeterred in his desire to have Mifune be part of his experimental effort and subsequently offered him a role in which his face, much like Kurosawa’s famous influential “fortress,” would be safely hidden underneath the visage of a black helmet as the villainous Darth Vader. However, this offer apparently did little to assuage Mifune’s reservations. As Mika further explains: It seems that the prolific Japanese screen legend who popularized the image of the samurai on a global scale by starring in films such as Yojimbo, Rashomon, and Seven Samurai was afraid that his presence in an inauspicious science fiction effort like Star Wars would damage the movie-shaped image of the honorable samurai. It’s certainly an understandable fear since, on paper, 1977’s original Star Wars was an unfeasible, era-anachronistic project that seemed imminently destined for late-night television showings at best.
