Last updated by Abby | 3rd July 2018
With the new Star Wars movie 'Solo: A Star Wars Story' coming out this year, all fans are full of excitement. Let’s use this moment to take a look back and explore a few facts about Star Wars that you should know. Hop on board!
1. What is Yoda?
Yoda may well be the most famous and recognisable Star Wars character, but we bet not one of you knows exactly what he is. That’s right, throughout the whole Star Wars saga Yoda’s species is not named even once. But that doesn’t really matter, nothing can stop us from loving this mighty little green Jedi.
2. Han Solo was supposed to die
The original script of 'Return of the Jedi' ends with Han Solo heroically dying in the Death Star raid and Luke acknowledging Darth Vader’s powers as a galactic enforcer. Phew! I guess we have to thank George Lucas for keeping Han Solo around in the original trilogy.
3. Four men portray Darth Vader
Darth Vader’s overwhelming presence is so hard to portray, that four men were casted for the job. The on-screen body, who appears as Darth Vader is played by bodybuilder David Prowse and the stunt double is fencer Bob Anderson. Vader’s voice is James Earl Jones and at the end of 'Return of the Jedi', the de-helmeted face we see is Sebastian Shaw. That’s what we call building a character.
4. A monkey was almost casted to play Yoda
We may never find out what species Yoda is, but we do know that the character was almost played by a monkey with a mask on! Luckily, George Lucas realised that a monkey would be a tough actor to work with, so he went for casting Jim Henson, who created Yoda’s muppet.
5. Jabba the Hutt is actually 7 people
While we're on the topic of ‘building a character’ subject, we cannot forget to mention that Jabba the Hutt was played by 7 people. Yes, 7. Not only is it the most expensive puppet in the world ($500,000), but the puppet needs this many people to come to life. Reportedly there were three people inside Jabba, two of them controlling his arms, jaw, tongue, head and body movements, and one person (a whole person!) for his tail. Outside of the puppet there were two people controlling Jabba’s eyes through radio controllers, one blowing up smoke through a tube and another one moving Jabba’s lungs. Talking about teamwork!
6. The line “I am your father” was kept secret from everyone
Perhaps the most famous line from the saga, alongside with “May the force be with you”, is the line “I am your father”, which Darth Vader says to Luke in The Empire Strikes Back. George Lucas did a great job keeping it a secret from everyone in the cast and crew by writing a fake line in the scripts, which was “Obi-Wan killed your father!” He told Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) the real line just moments before filming the scene!
Here's a bonus fact to impress your friends with: do you remember what word proceeded this famous line? "Luke, I am your father." That's the line, right? When you watch the film again you may be shocked to hear that the line was actually "no, I am you father." If you remembered it wrong, don't worry, nearly everyone does. This is an interesting psychological phenomenon known as a false memory and this particular false memory is one that was shared by masses around the world.
Waste no time and find your next Star Wars collectible item here, on Catawiki. This week you have the chance to see our Star Wars themed auction, or visit our Iconic Toys & Movie Merchandise auctions, where you can find more rare and harder-to-find Star Wars items every week!
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