This holiday season is going to be huge in the film world with Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful 8 premiering within weeks of each other. As preparation for the former film, I gathered up some of the coolest Star Wars facts for your encyclopedic brains. Enjoy!

IFC

• In the book The Making of Star Wars by J.W. Rinzler, George Lucas originally planned for Yoda to be played by a monkey wearing a mask and carrying a cane.
• Boba Fett’s face does get shown in the original trilogy. Jeremy Bulloch, who played Fett, did a stand-in for an Imperial officer at the last minute.
• The phrase “I have a bad feeling about this” or “I have a very bad feeling about this” is said in every Star Wars movie.
• The original script for Return of the Jedi had Luke putting on Vader’s helmet at the end and turning to the dark side.
• ‘N Sync made a cameo in Attack of the Clones at the request of George Lucas’ daughter, but they were edited out of the final cut.
• In The Phantom Menace, Yoda has three toes. But in The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, and Revenge of the Sith, he has four.
• Lucas was such a big fan of Stanley Kubrick that he hired almost all of the production crew from 2001: A Space Oddessy to work on Star Wars. 

Star Wars

• The Ewok language is a combination of Tibetan and Nepalese.
• David Lynch passed on directing Return of the Jedi.
• The sound that the TIE Fighters make is a combination of an elephant and a car speeding on wet pavement.
• David Prowse, who played Vader’s physical form, is banned from all Star Wars events because Lucas finds him annoying.
• In the South Pacific island of Niue, limited edition Star Wars collectible coins can be used as legal tender.
• Peter Cushing, who played Grand Moff Tarkin, found his costume boots so uncomfortable that he wore slippers during many of his scenes, and insisted his feet just never be in the shots.
• Three of the aliens seen on Jabba’s barge in Return of the Jedi are named Klaatu, Barada, and Nikto. Their names are a referenced in Army Of Darkness as the words one must say to destroy the book of the dead. Furthermore, the names themselves are a reference to the words that must be spoken to shut down the robot in The Day the Earth Stood Still.
• While shooting the scene in the trash compactor, Mark Hamill held his breath for so long that he burst a blood vessel in the side of his face.

Movie Ramblings

Do you have any other Star Wars facts we need to know? Shout back in the commments!

Comments

comments