40 Facts You Definitely Never Knew About "Star Wars"

"Many Bothans died to bring us this information."

1. Originally, R2-D2 had dialogue, with actual speaking parts.

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Many of C-3PO's reactions correspond to R2's original lines.

2. A select group of directors were the first to see the movie.

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The majority, including Brian de Palma, thought that Star Wars would be a dud. The only person who predicted its success was Steven Spielberg.

3. The iconic "Imperial March" (also known as Darth Vader's theme) is never actually heard in A New Hope.

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The song was originally composed for The Empire Strikes Back. (Though it may have been edited back into the special editon of "A New Hope" later.)

4. The 20th Century Fox executives wanted Chewbacca to wear shorts.

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They sent memos to Lucas, scandalized that there was a naked character. Although they ended up making sketches of Chewbacca with clothes, they chose to retain his original appearance.

5. The Jawas speak a variation on Zulu.

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Several phrases from the African language were sped up and altered to create the language for the small Tatooine natives.

6. George Lucas has said that his Alaskan Malamute, Indiana, was the inspiration for Chewbacca

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He also happens to share a name with Indiana Jones. Coincidence?

7. There are an estimated 2,002,795,192 deaths in the original trilogy.

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8. But the film with the greatest number of deaths is The Force Awakens.

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Keep in mind that an entire planet system is destroyed.

9. Variations of the line "I have a bad feeling about this" have made it into every film in the saga.

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Obi Wan uses it in Episode I and III, Anakin in II, Luke in IV, Han in IV and VII, Leia in V, and C-3PO in VI. Additionally, Harrison Ford says the phrase in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

10. Many actors were considered for the role of Han Solo.

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Among them were: Kurt Russell, Nick Nolte, Christopher Walken, Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, Chevy Chase, Steve Martin, Bill Murray, Robert Englund, Sylvester Stallone, John Travolta, James Woods, and Perry King.

11. The word Jedi may come from Japanese.

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Jidaigeki is a genre of Japanese media that takes place mostly in the Edo period of Japanese history. Lucas was a huge fan of Japanese samurai films, and used them as inspiration while making Star Wars.

12. Tatooine is a real place on Earth.

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Several scenes in A New Hope were shot in Tunisia, in the desert just south of a city called Tataouine. Lucas loved the name so much that he adapted it as Tatooine for Star Wars.

13. Star Wars was the first science fiction film to be nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards.

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14. The Muppets visited the set of The Empire Strikes Back.

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According to legend, Frank Oz (who did the voice acting for Yoda) brought the Muppets along to help Mark Hamill relax while they filmed the Daggobah scenes.

15. The first appearance of the Emperor was a composite of a chimpanzee and the character designer's wife.

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In remastered versions, they use an image of Palpatine that we all know and love.

16. In Italy, Darth Vader is called Lord Fener.

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Probably because Darth Vader's name is uncomfortably close to a phrase meaning toilet in Italian.

17. Han Solo was frozen in carbonite because of Harrison Ford.

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Although Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher had a contract for a third film, Ford was not sure he would return for the third. The writers and Lucas decided to freeze Han, in case Ford decided (or failed) to return.

18. Star Wars isn't the first mention of Endor. It's also in the Bible and in The Lord of the Rings .

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In the Bible, King Saul travels to the village of Endor to find a witch. In Tolkien's world, Endor is the way of referring to Middle-Earth in a variant of Elvish.

19. Episode VI was originally called Revenge of the Jedi.

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The title was changed to the Return of the Jedi , because the Jedi's ethical philosophy and code goes against revenge.

20. E.T.'s alien species makes an appearance in The Phantom Menace.

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Lucas included them in the Galactic Senate as a tribute to his friend Steven Spielberg.

21. Joseph Williams (vocalist for the band TOTO, who sang "Africa") contributed to the score of Return of the Jedi .

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He was particularly responsible for the Ewok songs. Williams is the son of John Williams, the composer behind almost all the other music in Star Wars.

22. Acclaimed director David Lynch was sought to direct Return of the Jedi .

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But he rejected the offer.

23. The same happened with David Cronenberg.

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The director of The Fly also rejected the project citing lack of creative freedom.

24. Keira Knightley was 12 when she played Sabé, Queen Amidala's handmaiden and double.

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This was years before her break-out role in Bend It Like Beckham, which made her a household name.

25. Rey's outfits in The Force Awakens were inspired by old sketches of Luke Skywalker.

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At some point, George Lucas considered making Luke a woman, and artist Ralph McQuarrie created sketches of the character concept that would later inspire Rey's look.

26. Carrie Fisher's daughter, Billie Lourd, made her film debut in The Force Awakens .

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Her character's appearance is a tribute to princess Leia.

27. The Force Awakens is the only Star Wars movie that does not show or mention Tatooine.

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The desert planet has appeared in all the films, except The Empire Strikes Back where it is only mentioned.

28. Mark Hamill was 63 when he filmed The Force Awakens, which is the same age Alec Guinness was while filming A New Hope.

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29. George Lucas claims that General Grievous' coughing problem was actually his own case of bronchitis that was recorded and used for the character.

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30. Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne auditioned to play Kylo Ren.

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However, according to an interview he gave, his audition was a complete disaster.

31. Hardly anyone knew the truth about Luke and Darth Vader until The Empire Strikes Back was released.

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During filming only Lucas, director Irvin Kershner, writer Lawrence Kasdan, Mark Hamill, and James Earl Jones knew the secret. To prevent the rest of the crew from discovering the secret, during the shoot Darth Vader said: "You don't know the truth: Obi-Wan killed your father!" Later, it was edited with Earl Jones' voice to the now iconic line.

32. And actually, you're probably misremembering that line.

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Although most remember it as: "Luke, I am your father" it is actually: "No, I am your father".

33. Benicio del Toro was originally offered the role of Darth Maul.

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Del Toro rejected the offer due to lack of dialogue. The Spanish actor is rumored to appear in The Last Jedi, the eighth episode in the saga.

34. And yes, Darth Maul was not very vocal.

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He only has three lines in the whole film.

35. Ello Asty, one of the X-wing pilots in The Force Awakens, takes his name from the Beastie Boys album Hello Nasty.

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His helmet actually says Born to Ill in an extraterrestrial language, which is a reference to Licensed to III, another Beastie Boys album.

36. Although they appear throughout the whole of Return of the Jedi, the word "Ewok" is never spoken out loud.

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37. Mace Windu's lightsaber had the words "Bad Motherfucker" engraved on it.

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According to Samuel L. Jackson.

38. The original cut of Revenge of the Sith was over four hours long.

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Many of the deleted scenes were used in the video game adaptation of the film.

39. Star Wars is the third most successful franchise in film history.

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The most successful is the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the second most successful is the Harry Potter film franchise.

40. And the only characters who appear in every official film in the Star Wars saga are R2-D2 and C-3PO.

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This post was translated from Spanish.