50 Intriguing Star Wars Facts You May Not Have Heard Before

The perfect way to honor Star Wars Day is by discovering something new from a galaxy far, far away. Here are 50 intriguing tidbits about Hollywood’s most legendary space saga.

1. LUKE SKYWALKER EMBODIES THE HERO WITH A THOUSAND FACES.

While heavily drawing inspiration from fairy tales, westerns, and 1930s sci-fi serials, George Lucas built the foundation of the original Star Wars (1977) on the principles outlined in Joseph Campbell’s book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces.

The book explored common mythological themes and argued that myths from different cultures, passed down through generations—such as Beowulf or King Arthur—share a universal structure. According to Campbell, “A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won; the hero returns from this mysterious adventure with the ability to bestow boons upon his fellow man.” Lucas simply integrated these ideas into his story, with Luke as the central hero.

2. LUCAS ALSO DREW INSPIRATION FROM AKIRA KUROSAWA FOR THE FILM’S P.O.V.

Lucas struggled with how to present this grand sci-fi space opera in a way that felt personal and relatable. He found the solution in Akira Kurosawa’s 1958 film The Hidden Fortress. The film tells the story of a roguish general safeguarding a beautiful princess from an evil clan behind enemy lines. “What really intrigued me was the way the story was told from the perspective of the two lowest characters,” Lucas said in an interview for The Criterion Collection’s release of the Kurosawa classic. “I decided that would be an excellent way to approach Star Wars. Take the two most humble characters, like Kurosawa did, and tell the story from their perspective. In the case of Star Wars, these characters are the two droids. The fact that there was a princess trying to escape enemy lines was more of a coincidence than a deliberate choice."

It’s perhaps no coincidence that the term “Jedi” is said to be inspired by the Japanese word Jidaigeki, meaning “period dramas,” which were the kind of films Japanese directors like Kurosawa often made—movies that clearly influenced Lucas.

3. LUCAS’S ORIGINAL SCRIPT DRAFT WAS TOO LONG.

In 1973, Lucas submitted a 13-page treatment of his story, initially called “The Star Wars,” to Universal Studios and United Artists following the success of his film American Graffiti (which had been nominated for five Oscars, including Best Picture and a Best Director nod for Lucas) that same year. Both studios declined, citing the complex nature of the far-reaching sci-fi saga.

The treatment was later taken up by 20th Century Fox’s Alan Ladd Jr., who offered Lucas a preliminary deal in 1974 to eventually bring the film to life. However, the “final” screenplay Lucas submitted was over 200 pages long (while the typical screenplay length ranges from 95 to 125 pages), so Lucas trimmed down the final two acts and presented the first act as the completed story. This script became Star Wars, and the remaining two acts were later expanded into The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

4. LUCAS USED VISUAL AIDS TO SECURE THE MOVIE DEAL.

To persuade 20th Century Fox to approve the then-massive budget of nearly $10 million (which ultimately ended up at around $11 million), Lucas presented Star Wars with a series of 21 illustrations commissioned from artist Ralph McQuarrie. These included visuals of C-3PO and R2-D2 crash-landing on Tatooine, Vader confronting Luke (then named “Starkiller”) with his lightsaber, the Mos Eisley cantina, the Millennium Falcon in Docking Bay 94, the attack on the Death Star trench, and an early depiction of a floating city that would later become Bespin in The Empire Strikes Back.

5. LUCAS ORIGINALLY CONSIDERED MAKING UNEXPECTED CASTING DECISIONS.

Lucas experimented with various casting ideas during pre-production. He considered casting only African-American actors, then explored the possibility of using only Japanese actors (with Akira Kurosawa favorite Toshiro Mifune as Obi-Wan Kenobi), and even thought about casting exclusively little people. Regarding the latter, Lucas explained, “I think that idea was a little influenced by The Lord of the Rings.”

6. HARRISON FORD WAS CAST AS HAN SOLO BY CHANCE.

Lucas spent seven months on casting for Star Wars with his friend and fellow director Brian De Palma, who was simultaneously casting for Carrie. Lucas was searching for fresh faces he had never worked with before and initially brought in Harrison Ford—who had previously played the antagonist street racer Bob Falfa in Lucas’s American Graffiti—to read lines for the auditioning actors.

Lucas auditioned many actors—including a young Kurt Russell—for the role of Han, but he was so impressed with Ford’s performance while reading lines for the other actors that he decided to cast him in the role.

7. SOUND DESIGNER BEN BURTT INVENTED A WHOLE NEW SOUND UNIVERSE.

Legendary sound designer Ben Burtt began his career on Star Wars right after graduating from USC film school. He was assigned the challenging task of creating a completely unique and organic soundscape for the film, a contrast to the trend of using artificial, electronic, and “futuristic” sounds common in sci-fi films at the time.

The first sound effect Burtt crafted was Chewbacca’s growl, which was a mix of bear, lion, walrus, and badger vocalizations. For R2-D2’s “voice,” he used loops from a synthesizer combined with beeps and boops inspired by baby sounds, which Burtt performed himself. Darth Vader’s iconic breathing was captured by placing a microphone inside a scuba tank regulator. The Tusken Raider’s yowl came from a blend of mule sounds and people mimicking mule calls. The signature lightsaber swoosh was created by blending the hum of an idle 35mm film projector with the noise made by passing a slightly broken microphone cable near the tubes of an old television set.

8. THE NAME “DARTH VADER” WASN’T PARTICULARLY MEANINGFUL TO LUCAS.

According to Lucas, the name was just something that “came out of thin air” one day, as he shared in J.W. Rinzler’s The Making of Star Wars. Later, he revealed to Rolling Stone: "'Darth' is a variation of dark. And 'Vader' is a variation of father. So it’s basically Dark Father.”

9. ORSON WELLES WAS ONCE CONSIDERED TO BE DARTH VADER.

George Lucas initially envisioned Orson Welles as the voice behind Darth Vader but discarded the idea, fearing that Welles’s iconic baritone would be too easily recognizable for audiences.

10. JAMES EARL JONES CONTRIBUTED LESS THAN A SINGLE DAY'S WORK.

Lucas selected James Earl Jones for Darth Vader’s voice because of the actor’s distinctive and commanding baritone. Jones received $7500 for his work and recorded all his lines in just two and a half hours. “Vader is a character who never understood the nuances and subtleties of human expression,” Jones explained. “So we figured out that the key to my performance was to keep it within a very narrow range of expression—that was the trick.”

11. THE MOVIE'S ICONIC OPENING CRAWL WAS CREATED USING PRACTICAL EFFECTS.

The original movie's famous opening crawl (which was inspired by the Flash Gordon serials that influenced the film) was created through practical methods. Two-foot-wide yellow die-cut letters were carefully placed over a 6-foot-long black paper background, and a camera made a slow pass over them to simulate the crawl effect. The entire process took three hours to complete.

12. LUKE AND LEIA'S DEATH STAR CHASM SWING WAS REAL... SORT OF.

The relatively modest production of Star Wars at Elstree Studios in England meant that many corners had to be cut, even when it came to the main cast. For the iconic scene where Luke and Leia swing across the Death Star chasm, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher were required to perform the stunt themselves, as the budget couldn’t accommodate stunt doubles.

The actors, harnessed for safety, swung 30 feet above the studio floor in a single take, which was captured in the final movie (though in post-production, the drop was made to appear bottomless using a matte painting).

13. THE ORIGINAL MILLENNIUM FALCON WAS A WHOLE LOT DIFFERENT.

The initial concept for the Millennium Falcon model was long and cylindrical, a far cry from the sleek design we know today. The model makers felt it resembled the spacecraft from the 1970s British TV series Space: 1999, prompting Lucas to instruct them to redesign it entirely, ultimately creating a craft that looked like a flying hamburger and sailed like a sunfish.

Although a version of the Falcon prototype didn't make it into the final design, a similar version did appear in the film. It’s the Rebel Blockade Runner seen escaping the Imperial Star Destroyer in the opening sequence.

14. LUCAS DREW INSPIRATION FROM REAL-LIFE WAR FOOTAGE FOR THE SPACE BATTLES.

While Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) is now renowned as a leading special effects company, back in the late 1970s it was simply a team of artists working out of a vacant warehouse in Van Nuys, California. The company, which pioneered innovations like special computer-controlled camera rigs to create effects for Star Wars, was given the task of completing a year’s worth of work in just six months.

To help guide the team in creating the high-energy and state-of-the-art sequences he envisioned, Lucas used historical newsreels to assemble footage of World War II dogfights. ILM meticulously recreated many of the space battle sequences, including the Millennium Falcon’s battle with TIE fighters, by directly matching them frame by frame to the footage Lucas provided.

15. THEATERS WERE RELUCTANT TO SCREEN THE MOVIE.

Fewer than 40 theaters agreed to screen Star Wars after its release date was moved to before Memorial Day, as the studio was convinced it would flop amidst a packed summer movie lineup.

At the same time, 20th Century Fox was preparing to release a highly anticipated adaptation of a bestselling novel called The Other Side of Midnight, which theaters were eager to show. Fox then imposed a stipulation: any theater showing The Other Side of Midnight had to also screen Star Wars, which led to a surge in the movie's screen count. Eventually, Star Wars became the highest-grossing movie ever made at the time, while The Other Side of Midnight failed to break the $25 million mark. Additionally, as forcing theaters to show one film in exchange for another was illegal, 20th Century Fox ended up being fined $25,000 for this practice.

16. LUCAS ORIGINALLY SELF-FUNDED THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK.

Following the massive success of Star Wars, and after facing constant interference from the studio, Lucas took the unprecedented step of financing The Empire Strikes Back

entirely on his own. This bold move, unheard of in blockbuster filmmaking, allowed him full creative control while still having a major studio handle the movie's theatrical distribution.

However, this decision wasn’t without challenges. As the budget for The Empire Strikes Back spiraled $10 million above the original estimate, the entertainment branch of Bank of America, which had loaned Lucas money for the project, pulled out—despite the fact that this was the highly anticipated sequel to the highest-grossing film of the time. Lucas was then forced to seek financial help from 20th Century Fox, which required him to relinquish certain rights to the film. Displeased with Fox's approach, Lucas decided to bring a new project to rival studio Paramount: Raiders of the Lost Ark.

17. FOR HIS LATEST CHARACTER, LUCAS DREW INSPIRATION FROM KUROSAWA.

In J.W. Rinzler’s The Making of the Empire Strikes Back, co-screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan revealed the specific roots of Yoda’s archetype: “Yoda is based on the lead samurai from Seven Samurai... Seven Samurai is, for me, the greatest film ever made and had a massive influence on George. If you watch Seven Samurai, you’ll notice that Yoda mirrors Shimada, the lead samurai. He’s the mentor figure who sees the larger picture.”

18. A NEW DIRECTOR WAS CHOSEN FOR THE SEQUEL.

While Lucas opted not to direct The Empire Strikes Back, he remained deeply involved as a producer, overseeing the film's production. He offered the directing role to one of his former USC professors, Irvin Kershner, even though Kershner had never directed a big-budget film before.

Initially, Kershner turned down the offer, fearing that any attempt to top Star Wars would be destined for failure. However, after meeting with Lucas, who assured him that The Empire Strikes Back would not try to surpass its predecessor but instead expand on its mythology, Kershner changed his mind. The fact that Kershner’s agent also highlighted the lucrative nature of the role helped seal the deal.

19. HOTH IS BASED ON NORWAY.

Unlike the desert world of Tatooine (filmed in Tunisia for the first movie), The Empire Strikes Back begins on the ice planet of Hoth, which was partially filmed on location at Norway’s Hardangerjøkulen glacier.

During the shoot for The Empire Strikes Back, the region was hit by the worst storm in 50 years, causing major delays. The freezing temperatures, plummeting to minus-20 degrees, were so harsh that the crew couldn’t even leave their hotel at times due to whiteouts. Rather than postpone the filming, Kershner and the team decided to shoot some insert shots from the hotel’s entrance. One of these shots is of Luke escaping the Wampa cave in the final cut of the movie.

20. VADER ORIGINALLY HAD A MEDIEVAL CASTLE.

McQuarrie designed a series of concept art thumbnails featuring Darth Vader’s castle—some set on an ice planet and others on a lava world. However, the idea was eventually dropped for The Empire Strikes Back. Later, Vader’s castle made its way into Rogue One, the ice planet concept evolved into Hoth, and the lava planet idea became Mustafar in Revenge of the Sith.

21. YODA HAD A FIRST NAME BEFORE.

In the early versions of the screenplay, Yoda was initially named “Buffy.” However, this was later changed to the full name “Minch Yoda,” which was eventually shortened to just Yoda.

The iconic Yoda puppet was created by designer Stuart Freeborn within a week, with assistance from Jim Henson, the creator of The Muppets. Henson, who was familiar with Frank Oz’s puppetry skills—Oz being behind characters like Miss Piggy, Bert, Grover, Cookie Monster, Animal, Sam the Eagle, and Fozzie Bear—suggested him as Yoda’s main puppeteer. Freeborn modeled Yoda’s face after his own and used Albert Einstein’s likeness for his eyes, imbuing the wise Jedi with depth.

Following the release of The Empire Strikes Back, Lucas pushed for Frank Oz to receive an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Yoda. Unfortunately, Oz was disqualified after it was ruled that puppeteers were not eligible for acting nominations.

22. STANLEY KUBRICK CAUSED ADDITIONAL DELAYS IN FILMING.

While The Empire Strikes Back was being filmed at Elstree Studios, Stanley Kubrick was also shooting The Shining there. In February 1979, a massive fire broke out, destroying an entire soundstage. Kubrick took over some of the studio space, and being known for his perfectionism, he delayed Empire further, causing even more hold-ups to the shooting schedule.

23. THE SPECIAL EFFECTS TEAM HAD TO THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX.

The scenes featuring the Imperial AT-ATs on Hoth, which were inspired by the alien Tripods in H.G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds, were filmed in-camera without the use of bluescreen composites. Highly detailed snowy landscapes served as backgrounds, while stop-motion animation brought the walkers to life in the foreground. The snow in these shots was a mixture of flour and micro-balloon epoxy filler.

To create the asteroids seen during the Millennium Falcon’s escape through the asteroid field, the team simply spray-painted potatoes and filmed them in front of a bluescreen for later compositing. As for the space worm that nearly devours the Falcon? It was just a hand puppet filmed at high speeds to create the illusion of scale.

24. ALEC GUINNESS WASN’T INTERESTED IN BEING IN THE MOVIE.

Sir Alec Guinness had a complicated relationship with his legacy, especially regarding Star Wars. He once called the first film “fairy-tale rubbish” and initially had no desire to return for The Empire Strikes Back.

Eventually, Lucas and the filmmakers managed to convince Guinness to return for a brief appearance as the ghostly Obi-Wan with Yoda on Dagobah. However, Guinness only agreed to do so under very specific conditions: he would work just one day, starting at 8:30 a.m. and finishing by 1 p.m., and he demanded one-fourth of a percent of the film’s total gross. Those 4.5 hours of work ultimately earned Guinness millions of dollars.

25. HAN SOLO’S MOST FAMOUS LINE WAS IMPROVISED.

In the iconic scene where Princess Leia confesses her love to Han Solo before his freezing in carbonite, she says, “I love you,” and Han replies, “I know.” However, that wasn’t how it was scripted. Originally, Han was supposed to respond with “I love you, too,” before potentially never seeing her again. But both Kershner and Ford agreed that line didn’t suit Han Solo, the charming rogue.

In a few final takes before lunch, Kershner threw a curveball by calling “action” unexpectedly, pushing Ford to improvise. When Carrie Fisher delivered her line, “I love you,” Ford naturally responded with “I know,” creating one of his character’s most memorable moments.

Another remarkable moment for Han Solo is that, aside from the prequels, he remains the only non-Force user to wield a lightsaber. He uses Luke’s lightsaber to cut open a dead Tauntaun for warmth when he and Luke are stranded on Hoth.

26. VADER’S BIG REVEAL WAS KEPT A SECRET FROM ALMOST EVERYONE.

In the early versions of the screenplay, writer Leigh Brackett originally had Luke’s father appear to him as a separate ghostly figure, separate from Vader. This idea was eventually discarded in favor of the famous reveal in later drafts written by George Lucas and Lawrence Kasdan.

Before the actual filming of the iconic reveal, only three people—Lucas, Kershner, and producer Gary Kurtz—knew that Darth Vader was Luke’s father. Mark Hamill learned about it only moments before shooting his first scene. To maintain the secrecy, a fake page with different dialogue was inserted into the scripts, where Vader claimed that Obi-Wan had killed Luke’s father. David Prowse, the actor in the Darth Vader suit, even recited the “Obi-Wan killed your father” line, while Hamill acted out the scene, unaware of the actual lines, which were recorded later by James Earl Jones.

Speakers of Dutch and German should have already known that Darth Vader was Luke’s father from the start, as the words for “father” in both languages are vader and Vater, respectively.

27. A CONTROVERSY SURROUNDED THE OPENING CREDITS.

To preserve the iconic Star Wars logo and opening crawl, George Lucas and the filmmakers intended to place all the credits at the end of the movie, a move that was quite unusual in the late 1970s and early ‘80s. This decision sparked a conflict with the Writers and Directors Guilds, who threatened to pull the film from theaters due to crediting rules.

In Star Wars, Lucas’s name appeared at the start of the film due to the Lucasfilm Ltd. title card, but in Empire Strikes Back, the new director and writers’ names were pushed to the end credits. This led to fines for both Lucas and Kershner from the DGA and WGA, which Lucas paid in full. The controversy surrounding crediting eventually led Lucas to leave the DGA, WGA, and the Motion Picture Association, and he has yet to return to any of these organizations.

28. KUROSAWA'S INFLUENCE ON LUCAS WAS STILL STRONG, THOUGH IN A ROUNDABOUT WAY.

The working title of the film was a nod to Dashiell Hammett’s 1929 novel Red Harvest, which inspired Akira Kurosawa’s 1961 film Yojimbo.

29. THE ORIGINAL TITLE OF RETURN OF THE JEDI WAS, CONTRARY TO POPULAR BELIEF, THE SAME.

Lucas and co-writer Lawrence Kasdan initially named the movie Return of the Jedi, but 20th Century Fox felt the title lacked impact and pushed for a change to Revenge of the Jedi.

The revised title, Revenge of the Jedi, made it so far into production that it appeared in official trailers and posters, but Lucas soon realized that in the Jedi philosophy, revenge was not something they sought. Therefore, just weeks before the film’s May 25, 1983 release, the title reverted to Return of the Jedi. The concept of revenge would return in a more fitting context in the third prequel, Revenge of the Sith.

30. SEVERAL BIG-NAME DIRECTORS WERE CONSIDERED TO DIRECT RETURN OF THE JEDI.

Steven Spielberg was initially George Lucas’s top pick to helm the third chapter in the saga, but Spielberg had to decline due to Lucas’s controversial departure from the Directors Guild, which Spielberg, as a prominent member, couldn’t overlook.

David Lynch and David Cronenberg, both rising stars at the time, were also considered to direct Return of the Jedi. Lynch, fresh off the success of The Elephant Man, declined in favor of directing Dune. Cronenberg, also coming off the success of the horror classic Scanners, turned down the offer to focus on writing and directing Videodrome instead.

Ultimately, Lucas chose Welsh director Richard Marquand to direct, largely because he was impressed with Marquand’s previous film, the 1981 WWII spy thriller Eye of the Needle.

31. RETURN OF THE JEDI HAD A SECRET TITLE FOR A REASON.

By 1983, excitement for the next Star Wars film was at a fever pitch, with everyone involved eager to spill any information they could about the plot. To prevent leaks, the film was shot under the code name Blue Harvest to throw off the public.

The filmmakers hoped that by using a nondescript title like Blue Harvest, they could shoot the film with less attention and avoid skyrocketing costs from location owners who might inflate their prices due to the association with Star Wars. They even created a fake tagline for the mock movie: “Horror Beyond Imagination.”

32. CREATING JABBA THE HUTT REQUIRED SEVEN PUPPETEERS.

The Jabba puppet was partly inspired by British actor Sydney Greenstreet, known for his roles in The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca. Stuart Freeborn, who also designed Yoda, was tasked with bringing Jabba to life. To control the massive puppet, three puppeteers were inside: one for the right arm and jaw, another for the left hand, jaw, tongue, and head movements, and a third for the tail. Outside, additional crew members operated radio controllers for the eyes, a person below the stage blew cigar smoke, and another worked bellows to create the puppet’s breathing effect.

33. HAN SOLO WAS ONCE SLATED TO DIE.

At the end of The Empire Strikes Back, Han Solo’s fate was left uncertain due to Harrison Ford’s contract only covering two films. When it came time for the third movie, Ford suggested killing off Solo, believing his character had no more meaningful direction. He thought this would also add suspense, making the audience question the survival of the other characters.

However, screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan agreed with Ford’s idea to kill off Solo, but George Lucas overruled them. Lucas wanted to give the trilogy a more uplifting conclusion, ensuring all the main characters made it out alive, which ultimately led to Solo surviving his carbonite ordeal.

34. LUKE ALMOST HAD A GIRLFRIEND.

After Mark Hamill became aware of George Lucas's grand twist about Darth Vader being Luke’s father and Leia being his sister, he suggested to Lucas the idea of introducing a potential love interest for Luke in Return of the Jedi. Hamill even went so far as to gift Lucas a coffee table book of sci-fi art, asking him to select a design from the book for her appearance. In the Expanded Universe, Luke eventually did get a girlfriend (and later wife), the fan-favorite warrior Mara Jade.

35. THE BATTLE OF ENDOR WAS ORIGINALLY MEANT TO OCCUR ON THE WOOKIEE HOMEWORLD.

In the early drafts of the screenplay, the climactic battle between the Rebellion and the Empire was planned to take place on the Wookiee home planet of Kashyyyk, with Chewbacca and his fellow Wookiees fighting against the Empire on the ground.

However, this concept was eventually abandoned because Lucas wanted the battle to emphasize the theme of a primitive society triumphing over a technologically superior one. Wookiees, being technologically advanced and capable of co-piloting ships like the Millennium Falcon, didn’t fit that narrative. Instead, the Ewoks, a less-evolved species, were created to fill that role, and the final battle was moved to Endor.

Bonus Fact: Star Wars pays a subtle tribute to The Lord of the Rings: The name Endor, the home planet of the Ewoks, actually means “Middle-Earth” in one of the Elvish languages from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings universe.

36. THE SPEEDER BIKE CHASE WAS FILMED EXTREMELY SLOWLY.

The thrilling speeder bike chase on Endor, featuring Luke, Leia, and a squad of Scout Troopers, was shot in Redwood State Park near Eureka, California, a location on the verge of being cleared for logging, which provided the production team with almost unrestricted access.

To give the illusion of high-speed action, Steadicam operators carefully walked a slow, measured path through the forest while filming at three-fourths frame per second for hours. When the footage was played at the normal 24 frames per second, it created the effect of bikes racing at 120 miles per hour.

37. WARWICK DAVIS LANDED HIS BREAKOUT ROLE DUE TO FOOD POISONING.

At just 11 years old, Warwick Davis was originally cast as an extra Ewok after his grandmother heard about a casting call on the radio in England for little people to appear in Return of the Jedi.

When Kenny Baker, who portrayed R2-D2 and was initially cast as the main Ewok, Wicket, became ill with food poisoning on the day he was supposed to begin shooting, the filmmakers decided to have Davis step in as Wicket. Davis reportedly modeled his portrayal of the curious Ewok on his own dog. (Baker then took on the smaller Ewok role of Paploo.)

38. THE FILMMAKERS CONSIDERED CASTING A MOVIE STAR AS THE UNMASKED VADER.

One of the most highly anticipated moments in Return of the Jedi was seeing Darth Vader’s face revealed. When that moment finally came, audiences were greeted with the face of… Sebastian Shaw.

Shaw, who was mostly known for his work as a British stage actor before his cameo in Jedi, wasn’t the filmmakers’ first choice. They originally wanted to make it a monumental event by casting a famous movie star like Laurence Olivier or John Gielgud, but ultimately decided against it. Instead of a well-known figure, they felt it would be more fitting for Vader’s true identity to be someone more ordinary, and Shaw was cast as the unassuming face behind the mask.

39. THE SAGA COULD HAVE FINISHED IN A MUCH DIFFERENT WAY.

During an early brainstorming session, Lucas presented an idea for the conclusion of Return of the Jedi that would have drastically altered the entire Star Wars story as we know it.

His original concept began similarly to the actual conclusion of Jedi: Luke and Vader engage in a lightsaber duel, with Vader ultimately sacrificing himself to save Luke by killing the Emperor. Afterward, Luke witnesses his father’s death after removing his mask. However, in Lucas's proposed ending, he suggested that, "Luke removes his mask. The mask is the very last thing—and then Luke puts it back on and says, 'Now I am Vader.'"

This idea was eventually discarded, as Lucas didn’t want the story to take such a dark turn and ultimately sought a more uplifting ending.

40. THE NAME OF EPISODE I WAS KEPT STRICTLY UNDER WRAPS.

Lucas started working on the script for the first prequel to a new Star Wars trilogy in November 1994, initially calling it 'The Beginning.' The title remained unchanged throughout the production process, but Lucas eventually unveiled the film’s final title as The Phantom Menace. To keep the movie from being pirated, it was sent to theaters under the alias The Doll House.

41. THE FIRST GLIMPSE OF THE PHANTOM MENACE CAME VIA MEET JOE BLACK.

In 1998, long before YouTube became the go-to platform for trailers, the teaser for The Phantom Menace was shown alongside the film Meet Joe Black, which led to a surge in ticket sales for the Brad Pitt-starring movie. Audiences, however, were reportedly only interested in the trailer and left before the main film even began.

42. OVER 3000 YOUNG ACTORS AUDITIONED FOR THE ROLE OF ANAKIN.

Casting director Robin Gurland from Lucasfilm searched worldwide to find the young actor who would eventually become Darth Vader. After scouring schools in England, Ireland, Scotland, and North America and working with both non-actors and agents representing child actors, she and Lucas narrowed down the selection to three finalists: Devon Michael, Michael Angarano, and Jake Lloyd, out of an initial pool of 3000 young actors.

Lloyd was ultimately cast in the role, though he only had one non-Star Wars related role after his appearance in The Phantom Menace.

43. NABOO DIDN’T ALWAYS GO BY THAT NAME.

Queen Amidala’s home planet was originally referred to as Utapau in Lucas’s early screenplay drafts, a name familiar to devoted Star Wars fans. Utapau was originally used for the desert planet that later became Tattooine in the initial drafts of A New Hope. Although it didn’t make it into the final versions of the original or prequel trilogies, Utapau eventually reappeared in Revenge of the Sith as a Separatist base.

44. THE TITLE OF ATTACK OF THE CLONES WAS ONCE VERY DIFFERENT.

During production, Episode II had a working title of “Jar Jar’s Big Adventure,” a humorous dig at the backlash against the character from Episode I, a light-hearted comment by Lucas about the fans’ intense dislike for the CGI creation.

Ewan McGregor had an honest reaction when he heard the title Episode II would be called Attack of the Clones during a premiere for another film. His immediate response was, 'That’s a terrible, terrible title.'

45. ANAKIN’S ROLE ALMOST WENT TO A MIDWESTERN STOCKBROKER.

Casting director Robin Gurland, who had also searched for the actor to play Anakin in The Phantom Menace, met with 300 candidates to find the perfect teenager to portray Anakin in Attack of the Clones. While Hayden Christensen ultimately landed the part, other well-known actors such as Leonardo DiCaprio, James Van Der Beek, and Ryan Phillippe were also considered. Surprisingly, a 26-year-old Indiana stockbroker named Jeff Garner was also in the running.

Garner reportedly caught the attention of actor and stuntman Ray Park (who portrayed Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace). After sparring with Garner at a karate tournament, Park sent his details over to Lucasfilm.

46. DON’T EXPECT TO FIND ANY OFFICIAL CLONE TROOPER COSTUMES.

In the prequels, Lucas made extensive use of CGI, and it’s evident throughout. No physical Clone Trooper costumes were made for Attack of the Clones or the rest of the prequels, as every single one was a CGI creation.

47. A YOUNG HAN SOLO WAS MEANT TO APPEAR IN REVENGE OF THE SITH.

While Han Solo eventually received his own standalone film in Han Solo: A Star Wars Story, a younger version of Solo almost made an appearance much earlier, in Revenge of the Sith.

Designs were made for a 10-year-old Han Solo, who was to appear in a scene that was ultimately cut from the final film. This scene involved the young Solo being raised by Chewbacca on Kashyyyk and helping Yoda locate the villainous General Grievous.

48. LUCAS WASN’T THE ONLY DIRECTOR TO BE INVOLVED WITH EPISODE III.

Lucas enlisted his longtime friend Steven Spielberg to assist in planning some key scenes in the film, such as the epic duel between Obi-Wan and Anakin and the intense battle between the Emperor and Yoda in the Senate chamber. Spielberg agreed to help, eager to try out pre-visualization techniques before making his 2005 film, War of the Worlds. Spielberg is credited as an assistant director on Revenge of the Sith.

49. REVENGE OF THE SITH WAS THE FIRST STAR WARS MOVIE TO RECEIVE A RATING OTHER THAN PG.

The third prequel received a PG-13 rating from the MPAA for “sci-fi violence and some intense images,” a decision Lucas attributed to the fiery transformation of Anakin Skywalker into Darth Vader at the film’s conclusion.

Lucas shared in an interview with 60 Minutes, “I would take a 9- or 10-year-old to it—or an 11-[year-old], but I don't think I would take a five- or six-year-old to this. It’s way too strong. I could tone it down a bit, but I don’t really want to.” This darker tone has continued in subsequent Star Wars films.

50. NONE OF THE EPISODE III FILM LOCATIONS ARE OPEN TO VISITORS.

The absence of actual filming locations is part of the reason for this. There were no live-action shoots during the primary filming of Revenge of the Sith. The entire film was made on soundstages, mainly utilizing blue screens and specially designed sets. For post-production pickups, various backgrounds were added to create the illusion of locations. Phuket, Thailand was transformed into the Wookiee homeworld of Kashyyyk, while the Bernese Alps near Grindelwald, Switzerland represented Alderaan. Additionally, footage of Mount Etna's eruption in Italy was used to portray the fiery world of Mustafar at the end of the film.

Additional Source: Blu-ray special features