Today is May 4th, Star Wars Day. Star Wars fans refer to the day as, “May The Fourth Be With You.” The Star Wars Universe is filled with so many little tidbits of information, that trivia buffs can talk about them endlessly. I wanted to share some of my favorites and see how many others know.
- “Luke, I am your father” is one of the most misquoted film lines of all time. Darth Vader doesn’t actually say those words. What he does say is: “No, I am your father”.
- A lot of the buildings that appear on the planet of Tatooine are still standing in Tunisia and are used by locals.
- The Jabba Palace sequence in Return of the Jedi involved 42 extras, 18 principal cast members, 10 puppeteers, nine mime artists, and 90 crew members… and it took a month to film.
- Return of the Jedi was briefly called Revenge of the Jedi and there were actually posters and trailers made featuring that title. It was only changed back to ‘Return’ at the last minute, when Lucas decided that Jedis shouldn’t seek revenge. (I have a poster with the original title)
- The bounty hunter Bossk wears a recycled spacesuit which was used in Doctor Who.
- Secrecy around the big Vader/Luke reveal was so tight that actor David Prowse actually delivered the line “Obi-Wan killed your father”. It was only changed when James Earl Jones did the voiceover.
- Alec Guinness wasn’t such a huge fan of the movies, branding the first film “fairy tale rubbish”. He would later go on to demand a percentage of the movie’s takings to appear in The Empire Strikes Back – apparently managing to earn himself millions of dollars for just a couple of hours’ work.
- The SFX crew who worked on The Empire Strikes Back have made numerous claims about the film’s famous asteroid sequence – including that some of the asteroids you see on screen are actually a shoe and a potato.
- Yoda was designed to look like Albert Einstein.
- Boy band ‘N Sync made a cameo in Attack of the Clones at the request of George Lucas’ daughter.
- Burt Reynolds was among the top contenders to play Han Solo, along with Al Pacino, Jack Nicholson and Christopher Walken.
- The role of villain Emperor Palpatine was famously portrayed by Ian McDiarmid – but he wasn’t the first actor to play the role in the movies. In The Empire Strikes Back, the character was originally played by Elaine Baker – a wife of the movie’s make-up designer – and voiced by Clive Revell.It was only in Return of the Jedi that McDiarmid stepped in – and Baker was also replaced digitally when the movies were released pm DVD.
- Princess Leia never actually gets to ‘meet’ General Obi Wan Kenobi. She sees him from afar when she’s escaping the Death Star as 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…then she never met him.
- Darth Vader has only 12 minutes of screen time in A New Hope!
- 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 orginal 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).
- 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.
- When Anakin is slaughtering the Tusken Raider in Attack of the Clones, Qui-Gon’s voice can be heard in the background. This is no accident as Qui-Gon Jinn’s Force-Ghost was trying to stop Anakin’s rage, but clearly failed.
- Han Solo’s space ship the Millennium Falcon has a cameo appearance in Revenge of the Sith. It is seen landing on Coruscant.
- Daniel Craig, better known as James Bond 007 was the Stormtrooper that freed Rey in The Force Awakens.
- George Lucas made his first Star Wars cameo in Revenge of the Sith. He dressed as a Pantoran senator, Baron Papanoida. You might not have recognised him as he all dressed up in blue body paint!
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