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Has George Lucas ever commented in an interview or commentary track on the duel between Darth Vader and Obi-Wan being the first time they met since the fall of the Jedi?

While the current Disney canon obviously has changed this and it does not contradict the strict literal conversation between Darth Vader and Obi-Wan - I think it is safe to assume this was meant to be the first time Obi-Wan has come out of hiding for an epic rematch of the Jedi purge duel - did George Lucas ever explain that. Like maybe how it rhymes :-)

VADER I've been waiting for you, Obi-Wan. We meet again, at last. The circle is now complete. When I left you, I was but the learner; now I am the master.

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  • Not entirely unrelated (from a certain point of view).
    – Lexible
    Jun 14, 2022 at 2:17
  • @Lexible yes definitely the answer to this question would also answer yours too. Though possibly some prior EU event would answer yours and not mine. It is regrettable that every character needs to state their entire history precisely lest some future work try to sneak into some gap of ambiguity.
    – lucasbachmann
    Jun 14, 2022 at 3:31
  • No relevant info in The Annotated Screenplays, either in the context of the scene in Ben's hut or the duel on the Death Star.
    – Milo P
    Jun 14, 2022 at 4:41
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    @MiloP thank you for your efforts. I fear this may be a situation where the story's intent was so obvious that it became wide open for retconning due to Lucas' silence and not anticipating future works. Remember future screen writers - if you don't say how your characters first met and how they die - JJ Abrams or worse could come along and do it for you. (I'm not concerned about the retcon personally- it is actually fascinating how much ambiguity was in the original script / normal english to allow for the Obi-Wan series.)
    – lucasbachmann
    Jun 14, 2022 at 5:47

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Lucas said some things about their two duels already in the famous August 25 1977 Rolling Stone interview, speaking about a planned sequel with content that was cut from the first script:

It’s about Ben and Luke’s father and Vader when they are young Jedi knights. But Vader kills Luke’s father, then Ben and Vader have a confrontation, just like they have in Star Wars, and Ben almost kills Vader. As a matter of fact, he falls into a volcanic pit and gets fried and is one destroyed being. That’s why he has to wear the suit with a mask, because it’s a breathing mask.

Unfortunately that gives us no direct clues, but a hint that whatever Lucas had in mind when writing the dialogue between Vader and Kenobi might not have been important as so much else surrounding those characters were heavily retconned already in the second movie. So any answer that might come from old interviews might differ depending on at what stage of retconning everything about Obi-Wan Lucas was at the time of the interview.

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    you are likely correct that this is probably the most notable George Lucas comment on the duel. In addition to it deserves more reading by the later generations of fans as this literally was the only backstory we had for many years.
    – lucasbachmann
    Jun 15, 2022 at 3:36

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