15 Things You Might Not Know About Star Wars

In our respective groups of friends and relatives, we all have one: the person who is the go-to for Star Wars knowledge and history. That person used to be considered a “geek” or “sci-fi nerd”, but over the last 3+ decades Star Wars has permeated our culture to the point that mega-fans are no longer saddled with outdated stigmas.

For those of us who don’t know everything there is to know about Star Wars, the list below, inspired by a Reddit thread called “What is the coolest, most far out Star Wars fun fact you know?” might contain some surprising and interesting facts.

Obi-Wan hated C-3P0

Alec Guinness was once quoted: “The only really disappointing performance was Anthony Daniels as the robot – fidgety and over-elaborately spoken.” 

‘Ewok’ is a modified version of ‘Wookiee’, and it’s not an accident

In the original Return of the Jedi script, George Lucas had planned on using a planet inhabited by Wookiees as the setting for the second Death Star’s shield generator. After proving to be too expensive a prospect, they created a creature half the size and “reorganized” the name, creating the ewoks.

Brothers gotta hug

George Lucas had originally planned on having Darth Vader and Boba Fett be brothers, but decided against it.

Ewan McGregor made lightsaber sounds when filming his duel scenes

When Ewan McGregor filmed scenes in which Obi Wan had a lightsaber in his hand, he unwittingly made the classic swoosh and hum sounds. He said it was an unconscious habit resulting from all of the pretend lightsaber duels he had as a child.

A bounty hunter to be named later

When Kenner began making action figures based on Empire Strikes Back characters, they were allowed to name one of the bounty hunters from the famous Star Destroyer lineup scene. The Kenner employees held a contest, and the winning entry was “For the Love of Money”, or 4-LOM. Kenner then promptly placed the 4-LOM name on the Zuckuss figure card and vice-versa, an error that would remain unfixed until the 90s Power of the Force figure action figure line.

The entire Star Wars saga is being told by R2-D2 100 years after Return of the Jedi

From The Making of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith: “George remarks to Rob Coleman that the story of Star Wars is actually recounted by R2-D2 to the Keeper of the Whills, one hundred years after Return of the Jedi.”

George Lucas has no idea what Star Wars things are called

Lucas is notorious for misspeaking when he refers to elements of the Star Wars Universe. Besides frequently calling lightsabers “laser swords”, he refers to Gungans as “Gungas”, Princess Leia as “Lee-ah”, speaks of places such as “Howth” and “Nayboo”, and pronounces “Jedis” just a little bit differently than the rest of us. Although who’s to say he’s misspeaking, when he created the whole damn thing.

“Over there, by Tatoonie.”

The Emperor supports local business

Rumor has it Ian McDiarmid was wearing a Japanese restaurant t-shirt under his Emperor’s robe.

Yellow is the new orange

Many thought Bossk’s costume was so cool at first glance because it was modified X-Wing pilot gear, just in yellow instead of orange. However, Bossk’s costume is actually from a Doctor Who episode called “The Tenth Planet”.

The ewoks have Southeast Asian roots

The ewok language is at least partly Filipino, as one of the creatures speaks Tagalog (an Austronesian language spoken by 1/4 of the Filipino population) when he first comes upon C-3P0. What he says translates to “that one’s beautiful”.

My baby blue

Green lightsabers were born when Luke’s blue saber couldn’t be seen well enough in the Sarlacc Pit/Jabba’s sail barge scene. His lightsaber was changed to green so it would stand out against the backdrop of the blue sky.

The Unspoken Word

Words never said in the Original Trilogy include Sith, ewok, Palpatine, Coruscant, and the terms TIE fighter, X-wing and Y-wing were not uttered until The Empire Strikes Back.

That’s no moon… that’s a sneaker!

The asteroid field in The Empire Strikes Back is full of “space debris”, including a production designer’s shoe and a potato.

Alec Guinness is the only actor to be nominated for an Academy Award for a Star Wars performance 

He did not win. However, he negotiated for a percentage of George Lucas’ earned Star Wars royalties, which is sort of like a WWE wrestler marrying Vince McMahon’s daughter.

Jedi mind tricks don’t work at customs

The Tunisian government required R2-D2 to have a passport to film Episode I on location. To mock the system, producers unnecessarily obtained passports for all the droids.