Movies - TV
How A Lost Star Wars Prop Wound Up In The Mummy Over Two Decades Later
By JENNA BUSCH
After Obi-Wan and Darth Vader’s iconic duel on the Death Star in “Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope,” all that remains of the Jedi master is his simple, brown monk-style robe.
The robes are a piece of movie and sci-fi history, yet somehow they were lost for many years only to appear once again in another film decades later: 1999’s “The Mummy.”
According to Tim Angel, the chairman of the UK costume shop Angels and Bermans, no one would have thought to preserve the Jedi robes.
He explained in an article in The Age, “It didn’t get any special treatment because at that point Star Wars was just another sci-fi film. No-one knew how big it would become.”
The robes were rented out for other things, like costume parties. Even “The Mummy” used the outfit for one of the film’s extras.
Angel shared that one of his staff members found a “brown one with an odd-shaped hood” in a pile of monk robes and figured out what it was.
According to Angel, the staff member “put it on and the manager said, ‘Oh my God, it’s Alec Guinness’s cloak from Star Wars’. It’s unmistakable, an iconic piece.”
The robe was displayed at Harrods department store in London in 2005 until it was sold to an anonymous bidder for £54,000.