8 Lesser Known Facts About Star Wars

It’s Star Wars Day! Yes, every year fans all over the world celebrate May the 4th as Star Wars Day. If you’ve heard the phrase ‘May the force be with you’, then you should know that the phrase used on Star Wars Day is “May the 4th be with you!”. Clever, right?

The first Star Wars film was released in 1977 and was followed by two sequels in 1980 and 1983. Today there are the six original films, plus many  remakes. The latest one being Star Wars: The Last Jedi scheduled to release in December this year.

There are a lot of Star Wars stories floating around the internet, but we wanted to something different, so here are a few lesser-known facts about the franchise we all love so much.

The legendary text crawl // Pic credits: Esquire

The opening sequence took 3 hours to shoot
The legendary crawl text that opens A New Hope is one of the most iconic texts in film history. As soon as you see it, you recognise that it is from Star Wars.

We have the luxury of softwares that make video editing easy for us now, but back in the day, the opening sequence took quite a while to shoot, as they had to type the text on a 6-foot long black paper and pan over it with the camera.

‘Star Wars’ wasn’t the original name of the film
The film was originally titled ‘Adventures of Luke Starkiller, as taken from the Journal of the Whills, Saga I: The Star Wars’. This was during the scripting phases. Later, the title was changed to just ‘The Star Wars’ and eventually to the title we all love ‘Star Wars’

James Earl Jones wasn’t the first choice for Darth Vader’s voice
George Lucas originally wanted Orson Wells (of ‘Citizen Kane’) to be the voice of Darth Vader. However, he realised that his voice would be too recognisable and hired James Earl Jones.

Yoda was inspired by Albert Einstein // Pic credits: Starwars.com

Yoda was inspired by Einstein
Yoda’s facial features and character were based on Albert Einstein. His character was first introduced in The Empire Strikes Back. Even the wrinkles on his lips were inspired by Albert Einstein’s moustache!

The best-kept secret was “I am your father”
George Lucas kept this twist in the series a secret. He didn’t even tell the actors in the script! He wrote a dummy script for the scene just so that no one knew what the actual secret was! No one had a clue until the day of the shoot. What a surprise, eh?

Jabba the Hutt - the most expensive puppet
It took seven to ten people to portray Jabba The Hutt! They were inside the puppet. One person was the arm, one the tail. It took about half a million dollars to make the Jabba The Hutt model.

George Lucas with his dog 'Indiana',  Pic credits: starwars.wikia.com

Chewbacca was based on Lucas’s dog
George Lucas had an Alaskan Malamute named ‘Indiana’. Many speculate that Chewbacca was an inspiration from his beloved dog.

Darth Vader was three people
It took three different actors to actually portray Darth Vader. His voice, face and body were all played by different actors! James Earl Jones did his voice, Sebastian Shaw was his face, and David Prowse portrayed his body.

Pic credits: YouTube

Also read: New Star Wars Movie Has A Woman In Lead