- The facts are strong in my family.
My father has it,
I have it,
and now you have it.
- The Force is strong with this one.
- Hmm.
- Here are 50 Amazing Facts about Star Wars.
In his personal life,
Harrison Ford is actually an accomplished pilot.
When they were planning his return in The Force Awakens,
he asked them to make sure
that the switches in the Millennium Falcon
had a realistic, springy feel to it.
He also taught Daisy Ridley, who plays Rey,
to not push buttons too frantically
because everything needs to have a purpose.
- In Attack of the Clones,
in the scene where Anakin and Padme
are romantically sitting in a field talking,
there were actually a lot of bugs
flying around them while filming the scene.
The visual effects team had to remove each bug
during post-production, painting each one out by hand,
one frame at a time.
It took weeks to do.
- When Star Wars first came out in 1977,
Carrie Fisher was 20 years old,
Mark Hamill was 25,
and Harrison Ford was 34,
making him 14 years older than Carrie.
- James Earl Jones, who voiced Darth Vader,
was not originally credited in the New Hope
or The Empire Strikes Back
because his dialog for both films
only took a few hours to record.
David Prowse, the six foot seven man
in the Darth Vader suit,
was credited because he spent months as Vader on set.
However, James Earl Jones's name was finally added
to the credits for Return of the Jedi.
- While shooting The Force Awakens,
a 63-year-old Mark Hamill,
who plays an old Luke Skywalker,
was the same age as Sir Alec Guinness, 63,
when he played the original Ben Kenobi
in the first Star Wars.
- To create the hologram of Princess Leia saying,
"Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope,"
they played the footage of her
back through an old analog TV,
and then they wiggled the cord
so that it would appear all fuzzy and staticy
and have lines through it.
They then filmed that staticy TV with another camera.
- Before making The Force Awakens,
Disney bought Lucasfilm back in 2012
for over $4 billion.
George Lucas, who owned 100% of the Lucasfilm empire,
donated most of it to charity.
- For both The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi,
Sir Alec Guinness, who played Obi-Wan,
was able to film all of his scenes in just one day each,
as opposed to the rest of the cast who would have
spent months filming on sets around the world.
- Have you ever wondered what Mark Hamill
has been up to for the past 30 years?
Well, you might not have seen his face much.
That's actually because he's a very successful voice actor,
most well known as the voice
of the animated Joker since 1992.
- Carrie Fisher was asked if she wanted a stunt double
for the shots where she kills Jabba the Hut.
She said that she really wanted to do it herself
and that it was the best time she had as an actor.
- The droids in The Force Awakens were actually made
by hardcore Star Wars fans who were part of a fan club
called The R2-D2 Builders Club.
The president of Lucasfilm, Kathleen Kennedy,
met them at a fan event and commissioned them herself
to work on the droids for Episode VII.
- The name Ewok was never actually spoken
during any of the Star Wars films.
The word "Ewok" mostly became well known
due to the merchandising, the animated television series,
and two made-for-TV movies.
- Ben Burtt, the sound designer for all six Star Wars films,
is credited with coming up with the original sound effects
for the lightsaber, R2-D2, and more.
He also provides the voice for another famous robot, Wall-E.
- In 1983's Return of the Jedi,
88-year-old Emperor Palpatine
was played by Scottish actor Ian McDiarmid,
who was only 38 years old at the time,
wearing heavy prosthetics and makeup.
16 years later, in 1999,
McDiarmid, who was then 54 years old,
again played the Emperor in Episodes I through III,
except this time he was considerably older
playing a much younger version of the same character.
- There's a popular myth that states that Darth Vader
got his name from the German "vater" meaning father.
While it is a wonderful coincidence,
he actually got his name from a creative play
on the words "dark invader."
- In A New Hope, there's a scene where a number
of stormtroopers enter a room on the Death Star
and the tallest stormtrooper actually hits his head
on the ceiling as he enters the room.
As a nod to this mistake, the filmmakers added a scene
in Attack of the Clones where Jango Fett,
who was the original host of the cloned troopers,
hits his head while entering his ship.
- For the famous line, "I am your father"
uttered by Darth Vader,
George Lucas wanted to make sure
that spoilers didn't leak from the set,
so the official shooting script
actually contained a different plot twist:
"Obi-Wan killed your father."
The real line was voiced after by James Earl Jones
and added in post-production.
- In Return of the Jedi, George Lucas wanted to have
the Empire defeated by a tribe of primitive Wookiees.
When it was pointed out that Chewbacca
was a technologically proficient Wookiee,
they decided to change the species.
Because Wookiees were tall,
they made the Ewoks short.
They even took the word Woo-kiee and flipped it.
E-wok.
- The Star Wars movies use certain colors
to help the viewer know what they're looking at.
The heroes' ships usually have red lasers,
while the villains' ships usually have green.
Also, in Episode II, the heroes' missiles
all shoot with white smoke,
while the villains' missiles shoot with black.
- In The Empire Strikes Back,
when Luke clashes with Darth Vader,
there is a shot where Vader falls out of the frame
and Luke jumps down after him.
If you look in the lower left corner of the frame,
you can see Mark Hamill bounce back up
on a trampoline into the shot
and look directly into the camera.
- The Podrace scene in Episode I
was entirely digitally created for the film
because nowhere on Earth looks like that,
and even if it did, there no cameras
that can travel fast enough to convey the race.
That's because pods are meant to be racing
at over 966 kilometers per hour,
or 600 miles per hour.
- Star Wars: Episode V and Episode VI
were not actually directed by George Lucas.
After completing A New Hope,
George went to his old instructor
from the University of Southern California
and convinced him to direct The Empire Strikes Back.
That's director Irvin Kershner.
- Famous actress Keira Knightley was in Episode I.
She was the handmaiden that pretends
to be the queen to keep Padme safe.
- While on the set in Northern Africa
filming the desert scenes,
the script originally had Luke's last name as Starkiller.
George Lucas changed it to Skywalker
as the production headed to England
before filming the rest of the movie.
As an homage to this,
J.J. Abrams named a new superweapon
Starkiller Base in The Force Awakens.
- Christopher Lee,
who played Count Dooku in Episodes II and III,
holds the Guinness World Record for the most
films with a sword fight by an actor.
He even did his own lightsaber fighting
for his close-up shots, at 80 years old.
- One of the most memorable scenes with Han Solo
is the exchange he has over the intercom on the Death Star.
Harrison Ford intentionally never memorized his lines,
fumbling and ad libbing what was in the original script
to give the scene authenticity.
- When the first Star Wars came out in May of 1977,
it was the first film to have massive merchandising success.
In fact, the demand for toys was so huge
that Kenner Toys weren't able to produce them in time.
So what did they do?
Well, that Christmas they ended up literally
selling empty boxes with a certificate inside.
The box contained an order form
for people to mail away to Kenner,
who eventually shipped back four action figures.
- Adjusted for inflation, the original Star Wars movie
is the third highest grossing film of all time,
having made over $2.8 billion,
and surpassed only by Avatar and Gone with the Wind.
- Revenge of the Sith has the record
for the longest sword fight in cinematic history.
- While shooting The Empire Strikes Back,
they hadn't yet cast who would play the Emperor,
so the makeup designer of the film, Rick Baker,
got his wife to provide the face
and they superimposed her eyes
with those of a chimpanzee.
Over 30 years later, while shooting Revenge of the Sith,
they got Ian McDiarmid to reshoot the scene
and inserted him digitally into a film he was never in.
- At the beginning of Return of the Jedi,
as Luke enters Jabba's palace,
we see what he appears to be him Force choking
the guards at the entrance,
which sounds like a Dark Side thing to do,
but there is a popular theory that states
that what he's actually doing is using a Jedi mind trick
to make them think they're being choked
without actually hurting them.
- In The Empire Strikes Back there's a very memorable scene
in which Han Solo is frozen in carbonite.
They did this because they weren't certain
if Harrison Ford was going to come back
for Return of the Jedi,
as he hadn't signed his contract yet for the film.
- Every single clone trooper
throughout the prequel trilogy is 100% digital.
- In The Phantom Menace,
during one of the thrilling senate scenes,
E.T. the extra-terrestrial can be seen in a pod.
Similarly, there is scene in the movie E.T.
that features a child dressed up as Yoda on Halloween.
This was to fulfill a promise between George Lucas
and Steven Spielberg, who are best friends.
- Samuel L. Jackson was really excited to be a Jedi
and decided to add his own personal flair to the character,
specifically requesting a purple lightsaber,
his favorite color.
He also got a little creative,
because on the hilt of his lightsaber
was engraved the words "bad mother(bleeped),"
which made it into the movie,
but were covered by his hands.
- Anthony Daniels, who plays C-3PO,
is the only actor to appear in all seven Star Wars movies.
- Originally, lightsabers were only ever intended
to be blue or red, but they had to change
Luke's lightsaber to green during the visual effects stage
because his lightsaber wouldn't show up
against the blue sky of Tatooine.
- While filming The Force Awakens,
a door on the Millennium Falcon fell on Harrison Ford,
breaking his left leg.
J.J. Abrams injured his back trying to rescue Harrison.
Harrison got out his personal cell phone
and called helicopter pilot who picked him up
and flew him to the nearest hospital.
- The original inspiration for Chewbacca
came from George Lucas driving around town
with his dog in the passenger seat,
a huge Alaskan Malamute.
His dog's name was Indiana,
which became the inspiration
for the name Indiana Jones.
- This is really cool.
The lightsaber that Finn uses in The Force Awakens
is the same lightsaber that Luke uses
in Episode IV and V, and then loses,
that was given to him by Obi-Wan
that he took from Anakin Skywalker.
That lightsaber has been around the galaxy
for over 50 years.
- Femi Taylor was the actress who played
the dancing Twi'lek in 1983.
For the special edition of Return of the Jedi,
George Lucas wanted to add more scenes
to the musical number in Jabba's palace,
so she returned 14 years later,
at the age of 37,
still in fantastic shape, and filmed some new scenes
where you can't tell that she's any older.
- Chewbacca intentionally doesn't look
any older in Episode VII.
Wookiee's typically live to be older than 400 years old.
Chewbacca's only about half that.
- In a memorable scene in the carbon freezing chamber,
an upset Chewbacca throws a fit
and began tossing stormtroopers.
Boba Fett goes to shoot the heroes,
but Darth Vader stops him.
Many people wonder why, but there's a popular theory
that Vader is actually protecting C-3PO
out of sentimentality for having been C-3PO's creator.
- Peter Mayhew, the actor who plays Chewbacca,
is in his seventies and over seven feet tall.
He's been wheelchair-bound for most of recent history,
but when he heard he was coming back in Episode VII
to play Chewbacca, he got surgery on both of his knees
so he could play the part.
- All of Boba Fett's lines in the original trilogy
fit into the length of a single tweet.
Here's everything that says:
"As you wish."
"He's no good to me to dead."
"What if he doesn't survive?
"He's worth a lot to me."
And, "Put Captain Solo in the cargo hold."
- The massive crashed star destroyer
that appears on the planet Jakku in The Force Awakens
was from an important battle that took place
between the Rebels and the Empire
in between Episode VI and VII.
- In Revenge of the Sith,
where we see Vader reborn in his black armor,
attention was given to make sure
that Vader did not rise in a Jesus Christ pose.
As it was originally shot,
Vader's arms were awkwardly strapped out to his sides.
This only ever appeared in the
official trailer for the film.
This is because after fans criticized the pose online,
it was digitally changed to have Vader keep his arms
straight down at his side.
- Captain Phasma is played by Gwendoline Christie,
who also plays Brienne of Tarth on Game of Thrones.
She's also six foot three.
- Did you know that there are more Star Wars movies
than just the episodes?
There are actually an additional four made-for-TV movies.
The Ewoks got two of their own,
Caravan of Courage and the Battle of Endor.
Star Wars: Clone Wars had a movie
that actually got a theatrical release.
And finally, there's a Star Wars holiday special
that is so bad that George Lucas has been quoted as saying,
"If I had the time and a sledgehammer,
"I would track down every copy of that show
"and smash it."
Well, we all have regrets.
- Carrie Fisher lost over 35 pounds to come back
in The Force Awakens as Leia.
Mark Hamill lost a good 50 pounds
to get in shape to play Luke Skywalker.
- And that's it for this time, guys.
I hope you enjoyed this special 50 Amazing Facts,
Star Wars Edition.
Special thanks to Corey Vidal,
my good friend who is probably
the biggest Star Wars fan on the planet,
- I'm so excited!
(Matt laughs)
- for giving me these facts
because he got a lot these from Blueray extras and books.
- All the books.
- And all the things that aren't,
most of these are not available online,
- No.
- So I hope you guys enjoyed this special edition.
If you did, share it on Facebook,
share it on Twitter--
- Prove your friends wrong.
- (chuckles) Yeah, that's right.
And be sure to follow Corey on all of his socials.
It's just slash Corey Vidal on everything.
- Yep.
- There you go. - [Corey] Thanks.
May the Force be with you.
- May the Force be with you.
I'll see you guys next time, peace.