Happy star wars day
Yep, it’s that time
of the year. How are you spending your May the Fourth? However you’re spending it, here are 21 Star Wars facts you might not have known. As a fan of the originals and not the prequels, these will be facts just about IV, V and VI or better known as the original trilogy.
21 : George Lucas was so sure the first film would flop that-instead of attending the premiere-he went on holiday with his good friend Steven Spielberg. While they were there, they came up for the idea for Raiders of the Lost Ark.
20 : Mark Hamill shot the scene in Cloud City-where Luke is hanging upside down, arm less-hours after the birth of his son(Nathan Hamill). He went to the set straight from the hospital.
19 : In the scene on Jabba’s barge where C3P0’s eye is being bitten by a small rodent like creature that was sat beside Jabba in his palace, Anthony Daniels-who played C3P0-had a panic attack and couldn’t said his lines. All he said was “Get me up. Get me up” repeatedly. His lines were added in after.
18 : Alec Guinness-who played the original Obi-Wan Kenobi-hated the role and particularly the dialogue. He threw out any fan mail that was sent to him without reading it. There are two reasons why he was killed off so early. One is the Guinness insisted on it as he despised the role while the other is that George Lucas made the decision due to Guinness’ bitterness on set.
17 : Mark Hamill did almost all of his stunts in Empire Strikes Back, except for the scene where he was sucked out of the window while fighting Vader,
16 : The original Emperor’s voice was provided by Clive Revill. His actor is not known, however it was an elderly woman stand-in. The eyes were Chimpanzee eyes later added.
15 : The scene in Yoda’s hut where Luke bangs his head was shot 16 times before the director was satisfied.
14 : While flying to the set location of A New Hope, the cast had to fly coach. Carrie Fisher’s mother rang George Lucas to complain about her daughter flying coach. Carrie Fisher was in the room at the time, and asked to speak with her, in which she simply said “Mother, I’m happy flying coach. F*ck off”.
13 : In A New Hope, Harrison Ford deliberately didn’t learn his lines for the intercom scene in the cell block in order for it to be spontaneous.
12 : In the scene where Leia and Luke swing to safety while being chased by stormstroopers in A New Hope, stunt doubles weren’t used. Hamill and Fisher did it themselves in one take.
11 : James Earl Jones-who provided Darth Vader’s voice-and Dave Prowse-who acted in the suit-have never actually met.
10 : Peter Mayhew-whom played Chewbacca-was originally an orderly in a Yorkshire hospital. He got the part in 10 seconds of meeting Lucas. The 7 feet 2 Peter Mayhew, merely had to stand up.
9 : In early drafts of the script, R2-D2 could speak standard English, and had a rather foul vocabulary. Although all of Artoo’s English speech was removed, many of C-3PO’s reactions to it were left in.
8 : Originally Luke was a girl, Han Solo was an Alien, the wookiees were called Jawas, and R2-D2 and C-3PO were called A-2 and C-3.
7 : The reason why Yoda confirmed that Vader was Luke’s father was that prior to this, George Lucas visted a child’s psychiatrist. The psychiatrist said that children under the age of 12 would dismiss Vader’s claim as a lie.
6 : Admiral Ackbar’s backstory is that he was once the slave of Grand Moff Tarkin, as well as his personal pilot.
5 : As Obi-Wan and Yoda urge Luke to finish his training on Dagobah, Luke pulls a snake out of his ship. Lucas assured Hamill that the snake was harmless, however it did bite him on occasion.
4 : In Empire Strikes Back, one of the asteroids is a shoe. It’s rumoured that one of the SFX guys were so annoyed at the repeated takes that one of them threw their shoe in. Another asteroid is a potato.
3 : Before Star Wars had even been released, Mark Hamill was nearly killed in an automobile accident and as a result, had to have reconstructive surgery on his face. George Lucas used the Wampa attack to explain Luke’s altered appearance. When Hamill asked Lucas what he would have done if Hamill had been killed in the accident, Lucas told him that he would not have recast the part of Luke. Instead, a new character would have been introduced that would be linked genetically, in some way, to Luke. This link would also explain the new character’s strength in the Force.
2 : The skeleton that Threepio passes belongs to a Tatooine creature called a Greater Krayt Dragon. This artificial skeleton was left in the Tunisian desert after filming and still lies there. During filming of Episode 2 : Attack of the Clones, the site was visited by the crew and the skeleton was still there.
1 : In the end of Empire Strikes Back, see see Lando and Chewbacca in the Millennium Falcon. Lando is wearing Han Solo’s clothes. A reason for this has never been given.
Make sure to check out HelloGreedo’s Youtube channel, he recently made a video combining his own list.
So there we have it. Enjoy your Star Wars day everybody and let me know how you’re spending it. May the fourth be with you!
Welcome! 