100 Star Wars Movie Facts You Probably Don’t Know

Think you’ve discovered all there is to know about Star Wars? Test your knowledge and learn some fun facts with 100 Star Wars Movie Facts. Learn both on screen and off screen secrets from your favorite franchise.

1. Mark Hamill is said to have disagreed with almost every aspect his character’s choices and dialogue in The Last Jedi.

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2. Behind Watto’s shop in Phantom Menace is a pile of junk. Hidden in the junk you can see the pod from 2001: A Space Odyssey.

3. The opening fanfare music for each Star Wars music is slightly different. Each one is recorded separately for each movie.

4. The Force Awakens is the fourth highest grossing movie of all time, in 2020. The first is Avengers: Endgame. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is now the highest grossing film series, but it was previously Star Wars. Now, Star Wars is second.

5. Chewbacca is awarded a medal at the end of The Rise of Skywalker mostly because fans were upset that he didn’t get one at the end of A New Hope.

6. Carrier Fisher’s daughter has a small cameo in The Force Awakens. You can see her running around the resistance base. Her hair is styled the same way Leia’s was in A New Hope.

7. Chewbacca plays a much bigger role in Solo, so they had to make more costumes for him. Eight total costumes were constructed, and 10 different heads to allow for unique facial expressions.

8. Security protocols surrounding The Rise of Skywalker were so strict that Mark Hamill said, “It was like being in the CIA!”

9. Christian Bale auctioned for the role of Beckett in Solo, but producers chose Woody Harrelson instead.

10. To the dismay of producers and insurers, Adam Driver (Kylo Ren) insists on doing most of his own stunts.

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11. When Queen Amidala addresses the senate in The Phantom Menace, you can see some E.T. characters sitting in one of the pods.

12. Jabba the Hutt is widely known as the huge slug monster in Return of the Jedi. However, in A New Hope, Jabba the Hutt was almost a large man in a fur jacket.

13. The ending to Episode 8 (The Last Jedi) had to be totally rewritten after Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia) died.

14. Close to an hour of footage was removed from the final cut of The Last Jedi.

15. The first Star Wars movie to be released on DVD was The Phantom Menace. This was only one year after it was released on VHS.

16. Even though he was 78-years-old at the time, Christopher Lee (Count Dooku) did most of his own stunts.

17. Rogue One went through so many changes that many of the scenes in the trailer aren’t in the final movie.

18. After the opening crawl, the camera will always tilt downwards, except in Attack of the Clones where it tilts upwards.

19. C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) had the honor of saying the first line in A New Hope, and the last line in Revenge of the Sith.

20. Hayden Christensen makes a brief appearance in The Rise of Skywalker. You can hear his voice as one of the ghosts that talks to Rey.

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21. Lightsabers are referred to twice in the film series as “laser swords.” Once by Anakin in The Phantom Menace, and again by Luke in The Last Jedi.

22. George Lucas skipped the premiere of A New Hope and instead went to Hawaii for a vacation. This was because he didn’t think the movie would be liked or successful.

23. Anthony Daniels (C-3PO) is the only actor to appear in all nine of the core Star Wars movies.

24. Peter Cushing, who plays Grand Moff Tarkin, took his boots off for most of the scenes. He found them uncomfortable and wore slippers instead.

25. John Boyega would sneak snacks from Carrie Fisher’s trailer because he was tired of eating healthy, but didn’t want the producers to know.

26. Most of K-S20’s lines in Rogue One were ad-libbed by actor Alan Tudyk.

27. The Jedi that trained Qui-Gon Jinn was none other than Count Dooku.

28. Ewan McGregor would make lightsaber noises when swinging his prop during the filming of Phantom Menace.

29. George Lucas wrote out detailed plotlines for episodes 7,8, and 9, but Disney decided to scrap them and rewrite everything.

30. In the first Empire Strikes Back script, Han originally says nothing when Leia says, “I love you,” The reply of, “I know,” was improvised by Harrison Ford.

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31. E.T. from the movie E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) lives in the Star Wars universe. His home planet is called Felucia.

32. In an early draft of A New Hope, Luke’s aunt and uncle were dwarves. The idea was it make it painfully obvious that Luke wasn’t their natural son.

33. In Rogue One, Watto has a cameo in the market on Jedha. Watto is Anakin’s slave-owner from the prequels.

34. In an early draft of Episode 4, Luke was a woman named Star Killer.

35. There’s a giant Darth Vader mask with a little picture of Miss Piggy in the center at the entrance to V’Ger. It is shown in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

36.  Frank Oz, the puppeteer, was almost nominated for an Academy Award. George Lucas wanted him to be, but the Academy didn’t consider a puppeteer an actor for Empire Strikes Back.

37. R2-D2 could speak English in the original draft of the Episode 4.

38. Both Paramount and Universal passed on buying “The Star Wars”. It was only after being rejected from every major studio that George Lucas was able to sell the project to 20th Century Fox.

39. In an early draft of The Force Awakens, Poe was dark-skinned, and Finn was Caucasian.

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40. The only actor who didn’t get to help decide on their lightsaber was Hayden Christensen. It was decided for him because his role was so pivotal.

41. Lightsabers were originally considered to be used by most people. They were seen in early McQuarrie art, and were used by Stormtroopers as well.

42. Lava sounds for Revenge of the Sith were created by combining macaroni casserole and a wet towel.

43.  The Star Wars theme song is the highest-selling instrumental song of all time.

44. The teaser trailer for the first Star Wars movie was narrated by Orson Welles, the voice of Darth Vader at the time. It was later changed in post-production to James Earl Jones.

45. The original title of Return of the Jedi was “Revenge of the Jedi”. One of the most expensive Star Wars collector’s items is a poster with Revenge of the Jedi on it.

46. Wicket the Ewok returns in The Rise of Skywalker. He’s played by the same actor (Warwick Davis) from Return of the Jedi.

47. Solo is the only Star Wars film where not a single character says the word, “Jedi.”

48. Anthony Daniels fell unconscious more than 18 times while filming his scenes in The Phantom Menace.

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49. Star Wars has been criticized for its lack of black characters. Mace Windu, Lando, Finn, and the captain of Padme’s royal guard are some of the only black people in the entire franchise.

50. Porgs (those cute little creatures from the island Luke trains Rey on) were created to digitally cover up the island’s real-world puffins.

51. The actor that played R2-D2 was supposed to play Wicket the Ewok but got food poisoning. Warwick Davis was hired as a replacement.

52. The first droid with more than three lines that was killed in Star Wars is K-S20.

53. Despite being the most popular character in The Empire Strikes Back, Boba Fett’s name isn’t mentioned once.

54. Did you hear the Stormtroopers in Episode 7 when Rey was in Starkiller base? They said, “We think they may be splitting up.” It’s exact same line from Episode 4 when Luke, Han, Leia, and Chewbacca are running around the Death Star.

55. The name Yoda comes from the word “Warrior” in Sanskrit.

56. Gareth Edwards, the director of Rogue One, gets a cameo in the end of the movie. He’s the rebel soldier who hit the button to send the Tantive IV away.

57. Yoda’s likeness was inspired from Albert Einstein. Mostly his eyes and facial expressions.

58. C-3PO’s final line in the film series is: "Did you hear that?" It’s also his first line in the first movie.

59. Darth Maul’s appearance in Solo was a tightly kept secret. The actor was driven to the set in a blacked-out limousine so nobody could take photos. In the script, all his lines were attributed to “Boss.”

60. For his work on The Force Awakens, John Williams was awarded his 50th Oscar.

61. Natalie Portman, the diligent student, had to study for her finals the night of the Episode 1 premier. Therefore, she couldn’t attend with the other stars.

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62. The planet Tatooine was named after a town in Tunisia called Tataouine. Scenes from Tatooine were filmed in Tunisia.

63. The instrumental score for Star Wars (by John Williams) is the highest-ranked instrumental score at the American Film Institute.

64. The original plan was to dub over Ian McDiarmid’s voice as Emperor Palpatine in Return of the Jedi. But George Lucas loved Ian’s voice so much that he kept it in the movie.

65. Adolf Hitler had emergency powers granted to him in the 1930’s. This is what inspired the emergency powers granted to the Supreme Chancellor by the Senate.

66. Every movie from the Skywalker saga ends on a scene with no dialogue. Usually with a character or characters staring off into the distance.

67. Kylo Ren’s helmet is smashed in the Last Jedi. To make the prop more realistic, director Rian Johnson smashed it himself.

68. George Lucas created the word Jedi after watching a Japanese TV show called Jidai Geki. It was a soap opera that takes place during the Samurai era of Feudal Japan.

69. Sisters Kate and Rooney Mara both auditioned to play the character of Jyn in Rogue One.

70. The stuntman who trained Gwendoline Christie to fight in Game of Thrones also instructed her how to fight for the Star Wars movies.

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71. The first person to direct both a Star Wars and Star Trek film is J.J. Abrams.

72. In Solo, Han says: "I have a really good feeling about this.” In almost every other Star Wars movie a character will say, “I have a bad feeling about this.”

73. George Lucas was offered the chance to direct the first Star Trek movie after the first Star Wars movie was wildly successful. He turned it down.

74. Jawa was the original name for Wookies. Wookies sounded cooler so it was changed.

75. The funny-looking co-pilot that Lando flies with in the Battle of Endor is called Nien Nunb. He returns as a resistance fighter in The Force Awakens.

76. The Force Awakens was filmed about 33 years after Return of the Jedi. In the script, the events take place 30 years later.

77. The Phantom Menace uses the same landspeeder from Episode 4. The establishing shot of Mos Espa features the original landspeeder, just painted green.

78. A Star Wars movie or TV show has been released in six different decades. That’s quite the span!

79. Richard Nixon was in the inspiration for Darth Sidious’s concept art.

80. General Grievous is 95% robotic parts. The other 5% is his brain, nervous system, and heart. The most important parts.

81. Rey’s final lightsaber (yellow) is made from the metal fighting stick she uses in The Force Awakens.

82. Rey wasn’t the first Jedi to use the Force for healing. At the end of Revenge of the Sith, it’s implied that Palpatine uses Force healing on Anakin after he’s burned by the lava.

83. After Kylo Ren comes back to the light side and turns into Ben Solo, the scar on his face fades away.

84. The plot of the movie Fanboys is about a dying cancer patient trying to watch Phantom Menace before it’s released. This then happened in real life with The Force Awakens. The fan, Daniel Fleetwood, died a few days after watching the movie.

85. Despite being one of the most popular characters, Mace Windu’s name is not spoken by anyone in The Phantom Menace.

86. A pilot with the callsign of Red Five is killed in the movie Rogue One. In A New Hope, this is the callsign that Luke Skywalker uses.

87. Rey is the first Jedi to have a yellow lightsaber. First Jedi from the movies anyway.

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88. The original title of The Phantom Menace was The Beginning.

89. John Boyega lost a copy of his The Rise of Skywalker script. It later ended up on eBay. Disney bought it so the plot wouldn’t be spoiled.

90. The idea for a sandstorm to appear as the heroes rushed back to their starship was in the first draft of Return of the Jedi. It was cut, but later used in the Phantom Menace.

91. Francis Ford Coppola (director of The Godfather) told George Lucas he should abandon all that sci-fi junk.

92. The only Star Wars movie where a woman receives top billing is Rogue One with Felicity Jones. Top billing is when her name is on the top of all advertisements and credits.

93. So that it looked like she was firing her blaster realistically, Carrier Fisher received shooting lessons from the same gun trainer that worked with Robert DeNiro on the movie Taxi Driver.

94. All Disney movies have an image of Mickey Mouse hidden somewhere in them. In Rogue One, you can see Mickey when a TIE fighter explodes at the Battle of Scarif.

95. The compound where Luke lived with his aunt and uncle on Tatooine is now a hotel. You can sleep there and dream of joining the resistance.

96. One of the carbonite bounties in the first episode of The Mandalorian is George Lucas.

97. Filmmakers built a giant skeleton of a Krayt dragon in the Tatooine desert. (Filmed in Tunisia) After filming they just left it there.

98. The puppet that plays Yoda didn’t get to use a lightsaber in Episodes 5 and 6. They couldn’t get the puppet to hold the lightsaber where it’d look realistic.

99. Special effects artists that worked on the podracing sequences studied crashes from NASCAR footage.

100. Jyn bumps into two people who will eventually start a fight with Luke Skywalker in Episode 4. These people are just two ruffians in the market on Jedha.

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