It's a scene every Star Wars fan remembers with a heavy heart - Obi-Wan Kenobi is mowed down by Darth Vader in the first Star Wars film Episode IV - A New Hope (1977).

While ultimately serving a purpose to the story - through his death, Kenobi became a guiding presence to Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) on his trajectory to Jedi Knight thanks to the force - it has now emerged, all these 40 years later, that the legendary character, memorably played by Alec Guinness, was originally supposed to survive the film.

Chewbacca actor Peter Mayhew has been treating fans to a sneak peek at select pages from the original copy of his Star Wars scripts over the past few months.

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The latest photo to be tweeted by Mayhew shows a very different outcome to Kenobi's battle with villain Darth Vader.

In the original script, Kenobi survives and is even assisted by Skywalker who helps his protégé defeat a group of attacking stormtroopers in the tense Death Star showdown.

We'll never know how these turn of events would have affected the story, but it's not a stretch to imagine that Obi-Wan would have joined Luke on his journey to Yoda's refuge, Dagobah, as seen in The Empire Strikes Back.