nic777 said:
the thing is the Star Wars nine episode saga is about the Skywalker clan. That's it. That's who we focus on, that's who we follow. No Skywalker, no care! Lucas himself established this pattern and theme with 4, 5, and 6. When A New Hope starts off we see Vader and Leia, then we go to Luke, then back to Leia, then Luke again, some stuff with Vader and back to Leia and so it goes. Thats it. We see the same pattern in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. All the major points of all the films deal with a Skywalker. Thats why the OT worked so well becuz it all focused on one point. Doing other stories that change that pretty much makes it not "star wars" in the vein of the OT.

I agree with RicOlie_2. Yes, the overarching story is about the Skywalker clan, but remember that we as an audience don't know on the first viewing that all of these characters we are seeing in Ep IV are related. None of us know about the father/son until the end of Empire, and the sister reveal doesn't happen until RotJ. You can make the PT a hero's story about Obi-Wan, but it is redone in a way that makes us learn more and care more about him. You still have Anakin and Padme, and can even show Luke being born. It still follows the Skywalkers, but they're strong secondary characters. This helps preserve the reveals of the OT by allowing us to focus on Obi-Wan, keeping the Skywalkers present throughout, but not connecting all of the dots until Ep V.