Ki-Adi-Mundi’s appearance in The Acolyte changed the age Star Wars Legends gave him, angering several fans, but he was far from the first – or most important – character to have his age changed. The “retcon” of Ki-Adi-Mundi’s age caused a controversy among some viewers of The Acolyte. The now non-canon Star Wars Legends established that Ki-Adi-Mundi was 60 years old in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, which took place in 32 BBY (Before the Battle of Yavin) in the Star Wars timeline. Since The Acolyte takes place around 132 BBY, Ki-Adi-Mundi shouldn’t have been born yet, based on his age in Legends.
Some fans have used the supposed change as a source of outrage, but since Ki-Adi-Mundi’s age was only ever established in Legends, his appearance in The Acolyte wasn’t actually a retcon. In fact, there have been much larger and more important age-related retcons in Star Wars’ history. One in particular changed the entire Skywalker saga of Star Wars movies, and it came from the original trilogy. It somehow didn’t inspire the same rage that Ki-Adi-Mundi’s age has, though. The similarities between this change and Ki-Adi-Mundi’s appearance in The Acolyte are quite surprising, even if the rest of the change couldn’t be more different.
Luke Was Originally Supposed To Be 2 Years Older Than Leia
In the original Star Wars, later retitled A New Hope, Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa weren’t supposed to be related. George Lucas actually intended for them to be love interests, as evidenced by the various romantic kisses Luke and Leia shared in both A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back. One of the more subtle signs that they weren’t twins came from the official Star Wars trading cards made by Topps, seen in a post by bigdaddyankee, which established that Luke was two years older than Leia.
The revelation that Luke and Leia were twins, and therefore had to be the same age, in Return of the Jedi should have “broken canon,” based on these official trading cards. It was an odd twist, based on the previous romantic undercurrent to their relationship, and one that caught many viewers off guard, but any uproar at the time was about their relationship, not their ages. Instead, most fans accepted the change and instead focused on the narrative reason Lucas changed their ages in the first place.
Why George Lucas Changed His Mind About Luke & Leia
The change to Luke and Leia’s ages actually came as a result of the throne room scene, the finale of Return of the Jedi. Lucas decided to make Luke and Leia twins because he wanted Luke to give into the dark side during his duel with Darth Vader, and he needed something to make him angry enough to do that. Having Vader threaten his sister would be enough to send Luke into a frenzy. Since the first two films hadn’t established any character who could conceivably be Luke’s sister yet, Lucas decided to use Leia for that purpose.
Return of the Jedi’s change in Luke and Leia has some striking similarities to The Acolyte’s supposed change to Ki-Adi-Mundi. Like Luke and Leia, Ki-Adi-Mundi’s age was only established in supplementary material like a sourcebook for The Phantom Menace and two trading cards, not the movies themselves. Also like Luke and Leia, The Acolyte is probably using Ki-Adi-Mundi for a larger narrative purpose. Of all the Jedi that could have appeared in the show, the fact that it was the one who was most openly opposed to the idea of the Sith having returned is probably a hint of things to come in The Acolyte.
New episodes of The Acolyte premiere on Tuesday nights on Disney+.