Owen Lars was a character introduced in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. He was the step brother of Anakin Skywalker and the step-uncle of Luke Skywalker.
The elder Owen shown in A New Hope was portrayed by Phil Brown. The younger version of Owen that appeared in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith was portrayed by Joel Edgerton.
Owen was the son of Cliegg Lars and his first wife Aika, who had died when Owen was young. Growing up he followed in his father's footsteps by becoming a moisture farmer. 21 years before the Battle of Yavin Owen fell in love with a young woman named Beru. He became the step brother to Anakin after his father married Shimi Skywalker.
Three years later Anakin had fallen to the dark side and became Darth Vader. By then Cleigg had died and Owen and Beru had married. The couple inherited the moisture farm from Cleigg. Obi-Wan Kenobi asked Owen and Beru to take care of Anakin's son Luke, telling them that Anakin had been killed. Owen resented Obi-Wan, feeling that if Anakin had stayed on Tatooine he would not have been killed.
Over the next 18 years Owen and Beru raised Luke. He feared that Luke was too much like his father, and worried that if he left Tatooine he would suffer his father's fate. As such he ordered Obi-Wan to stay away, and kept Luke busy on the farm.
One day a group of Jawas approached Owen's farm. He bought a pair of droids - namely C-3PO and R2-D2 - from these Jawas. What Owen did not know was that Vader and the Galactic Empire were looking for these droids.
After R2-D2 ran off to search for Kenobi, Luke and C-3PO took off to track down Kenobi. Meanwhile the Empire had learned that Owen had bought the droids from the Jawas, and sent stormtroopers to interrogate Owen and Beru. Failing to find what they were looking for the troopers murdered Owen and Beru, then burned the moisture farm. Luke came home a short time later to find the farm in ruins and the charred corpses of Beru and Owen.
Trivia
- The novelization of Return of the Jedi presented Owen as the brother of Obi-Wan Kenobi. This was rendered non-canon when Owen's backstory was established in Episode II.