Think you know everything about Star Wars? Can you tell us who Willrow Hood, Figrin Dan and Trapper Wolf are? Well then, this shouldn't be much of a challenge, then.
We've got Star Wars trivia and lots of it. Some might say we're crazy (or quite brilliant) for doing this, but we know Star Wars fans love facts and trivia about making these brilliant movies, so here we go.
Here's everything you probably didn't know you needed to know about every Star Wars movie, including the damn Holiday Special!
- The original Star Wars soundtrack remains the highest-grossing non-popular music recording of all time.
- One of the first ideas for Lando Calrissian was to have him as a clone who survived the Clone Wars and leads legions of clones. Ultimately he was made his own man and Jango Fett kind of took that role.
- Soundtrack composer John Williams has been nominated for over 40 Grammy Awards, winning over 20 times including several for his contributions to Star Wars.
- Max von Sydow, who plays Lor San Tekka also played Emperor Ming the Merciless in the film Flash Gordon. The Flash Gordon serials were a major influence on Lucas' development of Star Wars.
- Rogue One was the first Star Wars movie for which John Williams did not compose the score.
- Yaphet Kotto, who we mentioned above, was apparently offered the role of Lando Calrissian but turned it down. Madness!
- In The Force Awakens, Christopher Lee's niece played Doctor Kalonia! The doctor that tends to the wound on Chewbacca's arm is well known to British Star Wars fans as she was played by Dame Harriet Walter, a renowned stage and screen actress. There's a nice piece of symmetry here in that her uncle was Christoper Lee who played Count Dooku in two Star Wars films.
- James Bond star Daniel Craig has a blink and you'll miss him cameo as a Stormtrooper.
- The Starkiller base name was inspired by that word being the original scripted last name of Luke Skywalker.
- Vader's suit and ‘look' was inspired by Nazi fashion.
Image Courtesy of Lucasfilm - The famous reveal of the father and son relationship between Vader and Luke in The Empire Strikes Back is often misquoted as “Luke, I am your father.” The line is actually “No, I am your father.”
- The Force Awakens' Captain Phasma‘s final armor look was at one time a conceptual design for Kylo Ren. Phasma wears a black cape with red trim, the colors of the First Order. Given that Phasma was inspired by the Boba Fett character, it's no surprise she has a cape as the original idea for Fett was to have him wear a cape/poncho in the style of The Man with no Name from Clint Eastwood‘s Spaghetti Westerns.
- Denis Lawson who famously played X-Wing pilot Wedge is the real-life uncle of Ewan McGregor who played Obi-Wan Kenobi in the prequel movies.
- The iron ship fakeout scene in The Last Jedi is a nod to “Hardwear Wars,” a short film that was one of the original parodies of Star Wars that came out in 1978.
- Darth Vader was actually the only Star Wars movie character to lose an arm three times – and both his legs as well. Obi-Wan Kenobi got three of his limbs in Revenge of the Sith.
- The late and great John Wayne's voice was used in A New Hope. An old recording was manipulated and used for the Imperial spy Garindan – that's the guy with the big black nose that informs the Stormtroopers as to Luke and co's whereabouts. It's quite a cool bit of trivia when you understand that Wayne's The Searchers had a strong influence on the movie.
- A group of E.T. aliens made a cameo appearance in The Phantom Menace. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial was, of course, a Steven Spielberg movie that featured a Yoda costume in the Halloween scene!
- In Saw Gerrera's cave in Rogue One, there are paintings of monsters from director Gareth Edward's prior movies, Monsters, and Godzilla.
- Benicio del Torro was originally cast as Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace but dropped out when he realized his on-screen time would be minimal. So the trivia is he has been cast twice for a Star Wars movie – he played DJ in The Last Jedi.
- The original R1 squad had a giant green alien called Senna and a Lunka. They were paired as a duo but ultimately dropped. This concept design shows what they may have looked like.
Image Courtesy of Lucasfilm - In A New Hope, Leia was kept captive on the Death Star in cell number 2187. This was a deliberate choice as 2187 is the year that the Lucas directed film THX 1138, was set.
- As the Force Tree burns in The Last Jedi, its flames appear to make the Rebel Alliance symbol. This could be interpreted as the Jedi rising ‘from the ashes'
- “Phantom Menace” was the name of a villain in the “Flash Gordon” comics. This shouldn't surprise too many people as George Lucas has often cited Flash Gordon as one of his inspirations for making the original Star Wars.
- Solo was the first Star Wars film to not use the word ‘Jedi'.
- Rogue One sets up how Luke eventually gets the call sign ‘Rogue-Five'. The Original Red Five, Pedrin Gaul, was killed during the battle over Scarif, meaning that when Luke gets involved with the Rebel assault on the Death Star, he takes up the vacancy in Red Squad.
- The planet Jedha in R1 features a place known as the ‘Temple of the Whills‘. This is a great reference to some obscure Star Wars trivia – The Journal of the Whills was a formal record of history, maintained by a beings known as The Whills. During the original Star Wars writing period, George Lucas had the idea that R2D2 relayed the stories he knew to the Whills so that the Skywalker saga could be recorded for all time.
- In Jedi, listen very carefully as Darth Vader picks up the Emperor and throws him down the Death Star shaft. This is the only time the Jedi theme music plays over a shot of Vader, reflecting his return to the light side of the Force.
- Jedi was originally going to be called Revenge of the Jedi until Lucas decided that Jedi do not seek revenge. This was quite late in the production so there was a lot of promotional gear with the title already printed on it.
- The classic “The first transport is away!” line in from Empire was delivered by Mark Hamill.
- Carrie Fisher was once married to folk singer Paul Simon.
Image Credit: Lucasfilm, LTD - Rogue One's working title was ‘Los Alamos'. Star Wars films have an odd naming history.
- Alan Tudyk famously played Enforcer Robot, K-250. He also filmed a small cameo as a pilot called Wray Nerely but it was cut from the final film.
- Every clone trooper in Revenge of the Sith is a creation of CGI. No clone costumes or helmets were manufactured for filming.
- Check out this Rise of Skywalker trivia.
- The sound of the hovering battle tanks used by the battle droids in The Phantom Menace was created by running an electric razor around a metal salad bowl and then digitally lowering the pitch.
- According to Carrie Fisher in her novel, The Princess Diarist, she and Harrison Ford had a three-month fling during the making of A New Hope.
- To design the U-wing for Rogue One, 781 different drawings were done by Doug Chiang‘s design team before they settled on the final look.
- Phantom Menace was the first Star Wars film to be released on DVD and despite ‘fan hate' it was a massive seller.
- Rogue One Director Gareth Edwards has a cameo in his film as a Rebel on the Tantive IV. He's the one that frees the ship to allow it to escape Darth Vader.
- When Anakin is slaughtering the Tusken Raider in Attack of the Clones, Qui-Gon's voice can be heard in the background yelling “Anakin! Anakin!”. This is no accident as Qui-Gon Jinn's Force-Ghost was trying to stop Anakin's rage but clearly failed.
- The name “Coruscant” was originally used by Timothy Zahn. George Lucas was going to include the capital world of Had Abbadon in Return of the Jedi, but adopted author Timothy Zahn's name for the Imperial Center from the Thrawn books when presenting the planet in the Special Edition and prequel movies.
Image Credit: Lucasfilm, LTD - Solo was the first live-action Star Wars film to not include R2D2 or C-3PO
- Alan Rickman auctioned for the role of Jer Jerrod in RoTJ
- Phasma's armour design was originally a concept idea consideration for the Kylo Ren character.
- The ship known as ‘The Ghost' from the television show Rebels makes an appearance in the final Rebel attack on Scariff Base in Rogue One.
- Darth Maul has ten horns on his red head.
- While Ray Park is famous as playing the Sith Lord, Peter Serafinowicz actually voiced the character. Benicio Del Toro was originally cast to play Darth Maul but he abandoned the role after George Lucas decided to trim Darth Maul's screen time in the film. Del Toro eventually ended up playing DJ in The Last Jedi.
- In Solo, Mother Proxima is a White Worm. Her name is taken from the Bram Stoker book, The Lair of the White Worm.
- The sound effect when Obi-Wan Kenobi's lightsaber is kicked down the reactor shaft in the climactic battle with Darth Maul is the same sound effect heard when Luke Skywalker throws his lightsaber away in Return of the Jedi. You know, when he tells the Emperor that he is a Jedi, like his father before him!
- Mark Hamill received a black eye when filming the famous ‘Dianoga‘ attack in the Trash Compactor scene from A New Hope which meant he was filmed from one side only for the rest shooting that scene.
- When Jango Fett gets into his ship after his fight with Obi-Wan in Attack of the Clones, he bangs his head on the open door. This was intentional and is a reference to a famous goof from the original movie where a cloned storm trooper accidentally bangs his head on a door (the clone being the descendant of Jango Fett and having inherited this character trait).
- “It's a trap,” which is arguably the most famous line in the movie, was, incredibly, not in the screenplay. The line was scripted as “It's a trick!” and was later changed post-filming after a test screening because let's face it, “it's a trick” just doesn't have the same ring to it. Recall though that Leia calls out the line to Luke on Cloud City in Empire!
- David Lynch was originally offered the chance to direct this episode of the series. He turned it down because he believed it was “Lucas' thing.” He went on to direct the Dune movie instead. It's actually really interesting how much Frank Herbert's book influence the original Star Wars script development.
Image Credit: Lucasfilm, LTD - In The Force Awakens when Han Solo calls out to Kylo Ren using his real name of Ben, this is a direct reference to Obi-Wan Kenobi for he was known as Old Ben during his time on Tatooine as he looked over Luke.
- The shipping title of Phantom Menace was “The Doll House”, Clones was “Cue Ball” and Sith, “The Bridge”.
- Leia's character has her own musical theme titled “Princess Leia's Theme”. It is represented by the musical leitmotif method which is famously used across the films. The piece was composed by John Williams and was used several times. It first appeared in A New Hope, heard when Princess Leia is captured by the evil Sith Lord, Darth Vader. Later, it surfaces as R2-D2 plays her holographic message to Obi-Wan Kenobi. The also theme plays when Kenobi is killed by Vader and it makes an appearance in the credits of the movie. It also is used in the two follow up movies and the Revenge of the Sith prequel when her adoptive father Bail Organa introduces her to her adoptive mother.
- Anakin Skywalker really is the ‘Chosen oneâ€. While Yoda and Mace Windu may have thought a mistake had been made in the reading of the prophecy, Anakin was the one who actually killed Sith Lord Palpatine by throwing him down the Death Starâ€s reactor shaft in Jedi and thus restored balance to the Force.
- Master Yoda is 66 cm tall. As a comparison, R2D2 stands taller at 96 cm!
- Darth Vader's funeral pyre scene where Luke stands over his father was added at the very last minute, long after principal photography and pick-ups had wrapped. The scene was thrown together and shot near the hills of Skywalker Ranch.
- Ron Howard famously turned down George Lucas's offer to direct The Phantom Menace.
After appearing in Return of the Jedi, fan favorite Wedge became the only X-wing pilot character (apart from Luke) who survives all three major battles in the original trilogy. - The Millennium Falcon is spied landing on Coruscant in Revenge of the Sith. This was prior to Lando or Han Solo owning it!
- It's a myth the Wampa was created to allow for Luke's rearranged face after a car accident. Mark Hamill was injured prior to the filming of The Empire Strikes Back. This is fact though. The myth is that due to his face being rearranged, Lucas had to re-write the Hoth events to include the Wampa attacking Luke to account for his injury. The truth is that no accommodations were made for Hamillâ€s face. The myth is probably stoked by this moment from Empire that was unused.
- Boba Fett was first seen in The Empire Strikes Back right? Nope, technically his first appearance was in an animated segment of The Star Wars Holiday Special. It is the only good part of that movie.
Image Credit: Lucasfilm, LTD - Yoda's species has never been mentioned. In official records, he is simply an “unknown species.” He'll always be Kermit's ugly cousin to us.
- Revenge of the Sith is the only Star Wars film thus far that does not feature R2D2 in the final shot (and Rogue One if that counts!).
- Alden Ehrenreich was the first actor to audition for directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller for the Solo movie. They saw many other actors but Alden made a lasting impression.
- In the Solo film, there was a fourth member of Beckett's team called Korso but the character was cut in the editing room. You can actually see a few shots of him in the Mimban sequences. Korso was to be killed early on so that Becket would see value in replacing him with Chewbacca.
- That dude in the Rebel Base to which Han Solo retorts, “Then I'll see you in Hell!”? just before he heads out to find a certain missing Jedi? That's Cliff Clavin from the TV sitcom Cheers and the Pixar movies AKA John Ratzenberger.
- Dryden Vos has a set of Mandalorian Battle Armor in his collection on his space yacht in Solo This is the same style of armor made famous by bounty hunter Boba Fett.
- Princess Leia never actually gets to ‘meet' Obi-Wan Kenobi. She sees him from afar when she's escaping the Death Star and Obi-Wan is about to let Darth Vader kill him but that's it. Unless you count Obi-Wan being present for her birth in Revenge of the Sith…
- When Han is caught in the mud during his first encounter with Chewie in Solo, his pose is very similar to the one of him in the frozen block of carbonite in The Empire Strikes Back.
- Carrie Fisher wrote an actual bestselling novel Postcards from the Edge and screenplay for the film based on her writing. In some Holywood circles, she was considered an excellent script doctor. The book was about her drug addiction and her relationship with her mother. Fisher has managed to parlay her writing talent with a few turns at playing script doctor for a few Hollywood movies, most notably Dustin Hoffman's Outbreak. Her appearance in Scream 3 was apparently scripted by herself. Beauty and brains eh?
Image Credit: Lucasfilm, LTD - Frank Oz who is the voice for the most famous little green guy in cinema history, Yoda was also the voice of the Muppetâ€s Miss Piggy. It was because of his talents that he developed with Jim Henson that saw him get the call up. He also did the puppetry.
- George Lucas made his first and only Star Wars cameo in Revenge of the Sith. He dressed as a Pantoran senator, Baron Papanoida. You might not have recognized him as he all dressed up in blue body paint! His daughter also cameoed with him at the same time.
- The so-called Tusken Raiders or sand people of Tatooine are the actual natives of the planet. The Jawa, Hutts, and Humans all came after.
- In the original drafts of Star Wars, Darth Vader and Anakin Skywalker were definitely different people – it wasnâ€t until the development of the script for The Empire Strikes Back that the two were combined as one character. This means Darth Vader does not mean Dark Father and the name was not a hint as to Luke's parentage.
- In a New Hope, Leia was kept captive on the Death Star in cell number 2187. This was a deliberate choice as 2187 is the year that the Lucas directed film THX 1138, was set. The Force Awakens took this even further and used the number as Finn's designated Stormtrooper number FN2187
- Every clone trooper in Revenge of the Sith is a creation of CGI. No clone costumes or helmets were manufactured for filming.
- In ROTS, a quick character cameo occurs when Vader and the Emperor are standing on the bridge of a Star Destroyer, overlooking the initial construction stage of the Death Star. In a blink and you'll miss it moment, a young Moff Tarkin quietly sidles up to the Sith Lords. Moff Tarkin features heavily in A New Hope, it is he who orders the destruction of the planet Alderaan
Harrison Ford famously was never intended to be Han Solo, he was just hanging around after American Graffitti and was helping other actors read their lines as Lucas was in the casting process. Eventually, Lucas wised up and realised Harrison already had the part down cold. - A very early draft of the Empire Strikes Back script saw Han Solo going in search of his Father-In-Law, Ovan Marekal, who has political ties with Lord Vader. Luke Skywalker flies to the ‘Bog' Planet where he meets a frog-like Jedi named Minch, who teaches him the ways of the force. That's right, Yoda was frog-like and was going to be called Minch. Can you image it, “But Master Minch, you cannot die!”
- As General Kenobi is about to leave to hunt down General Grievous, he shares a nice moment with Anakin which finishes with a very loving, ‘Goodbye old friend' from Kenobi. This is the last time in the movie the two Jedi converse as friends. A key thing is the lighting – Anakin in the dark and Obi-Wan in the light – it is a literal case of foreshadowing what was to come.
- George Lucas funded the production costs of The Empire Strikes Back by himself to the tune of $33 million thus making it one of the most successful ‘independent' films of all time.
Image Credit: Lucasfilm, LTD - Return of the Jedi‘s Ewoks were originally intended to be a tribe of Wookie, however, it was eventually realized that given Chewbacca could fly the Millennium Falcon, Wookie were not so primitive and thus the entire plot of the Ewok attack on the Shield generator would have seemed a nonsense. The Ewoks thus came into play for this reason — and also apparently it was thought a lot of kiddie-friendly Ewok teddy bears and associated merchandise could be sold. You saw Caravan of Courage right? The Wookie were eventually seen on their home planet of Kashyyyk in Revenge of the Sith.
- During Revenge of the Sith Bail Organa and Yoda step into the hallway of Organa's ship and have a nice conversation about becoming rebels or something. It's the same ship that Darth Vader boards to capture Princess Leia Organa in the start of A New Hope.
- The famous Catina where our heroes met Han Solo in ANH is actually called Chalmun's Cantina.
- Ralph McQuarrie designed C3PO by taking liberty with the Maschinenmensch design from the classic 1927 film Metropolis. Robby the Robot also was an inspiration for the protocol droid aspect.
- Carrie Fisher had to stand on a box for most of her scenes with Harrison Ford in the original Star Wars films because she is a foot shorter than him. This was done so the actors would look better in the frame shot together.
- George Lucas at one stage considered using the great actor and director Orsen Welles as the voice actor for Darth Vader.
- The Bantha milk drank by Luke and Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru in A New Hope is blue. Coincidentally or not, the code name for Return of the Jedi was Blue Harvest.
- Everyone assumes Luke only appeared in the three original Star Wars films. Think about it for a moment and youâ€ll realise Skywalker appears as a baby at the end of Revenge of the Sith. He, of course, appeared for 30 seconds in The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi making it 6 film appearances. Will we see Luke in Episode IX?
- R2D2 had a wee moment in Star Trek Into Darkness where he was spied being flung into space in an explosion. This also happened in Abram's first Star Trek movie. How did this happen? A certain company called ILM may have done the special effects CGI on both films!
- Contrary to popular belief, the city where Qui-Gon discovers a young Anakin is not the famous spaceport of Mos Eisley, but a different place called Mos Espa. Qui-Gon's description of Mos Espa is almost the same, if not the same word for word, as Obi-Wan's description of Mos Eisley during A New Hope.
- The orange doll that Rey has fashioned in her living abode in The Force Awakens is very reminiscent of the suits worn by the rebel pilots in A New Hope.
- In A New Hope, Darth Vader has only 12 minutes of screen time.
- After Padme dies in Revenge of the Sith, she is returned to her home planet of Naboo for burial – her body has been altered to make it appear like she was still pregnant – this is all part of the deception of to keep the existence of Leia and Luke a secret.
- In the trailer for TFA, when entering Maz Kanata's castle, our heroes observe a large array of flags. Many of them refer to the pod racing flags that racers like Sebulba and Anakin flew in The Phantom Menace. The Mandalore flag which is a link to Boba Fett as well. Many of these were removed from the final version of the film.
- It's a myth that George Lucas had 12 films all mapped out before the first Star Wars was released. Thatâ€s the legend but the mythology of it has grown over the years. The nutshell is that Lucas wrote a great deal of material when he was developing his little sci-fi adventure. Based around a so-called “Journal of Whillsâ€, Lucas script eventually was cut up and Star Wars as we know it was filmed. It was not until Empire Strikes Back came out that the term Episode 5 was mentioned officially. Lucasâ€s grand vision was actually pieced together over several years in very broad strokes. The 12 or 9 films as most people know of were never fully scripted but were largely imaginings of Lucas that were eventually firmly realized well after 1977
- A very early draft of the Empire saw Han Solo going in search of his Father-In-Law, Ovan Marekal, who has political ties with Lord Vader.
- Japanese film director Akira Kurosawa was a major influence on George Lucas and his ideas for his films.
- R2-D2 is taller than the Ewok Wicket from Return of the Jedi.
- George Luca's original Star Wars draft took a lot of inspiration from a film called The Hidden Fortress. It featured a pair of bickering sidekicks who served as comic relief and crucially managed to help keep the plot ticking along. Lucas adopted this concept and applied it to the robots.
- A lot of people miss it, thinking the C3PO is totally a ‘golden rod' but his right leg is actually silver from beneath the knee joint. In The Force Awakens he had a red arm for a time but at the end of the movie has gone back to what we presume was the original gold.
- Phantom Menace is the only film in the series in which the top-credited actor plays a non-recurring character, and in which the top-credited character dies.
Image Credit: Lucasfilm, LTD - Every single Clone Trooper in Revenge of the Sith is a creation of talented CGI designers. No clone costumes or helmets were manufactured for filming.
- The name “Qui-Gon” derives from an ancient Chinese system of alternative medicine called “Qigong”. The word “Jinn” refers to the “Djinn” one of the so-called genies of Arabian myth.
- The dice that were first featured in The Last Jedi were originally actually filmed in The Force Awakens but were cut from the film. In the Solo movie, they are first seen again when Han places them in his escape vessel.
- In Batman v Superman, Luthor's jail uniform readsâ€16-TK421â€. Part of this number is the same as the Stormtrooper that was asked why he wasnâ€t at his post in A New Hope.
- In The Force Awakens, as BB-8 does some rolling to escape the TIE attack, two pod racers can be spied in the background, a nod to The Phantom Menace.
Phew, that was a mission and a half – it was right up there with the Death Star trench run!
This article was produced and syndicated by Wealth of Geeks.
