Happy Star Wars Day everyone. Its a day where Star Wars fans can be proud to be fans of such a massive franchise that has done everything such as films, TV shows, books, radio plays, video games, LEGO and more recently anime. So what am I going to do for Star Wars Day? Well I thought why not talk about some of the things that you may not know about the big franchise that it is and you may be surprised with what I've got to say. So let's get to it:
James Earl Jones being half of Vader
James Earl Jones, an all around great guy who played one of the biggest and greatest villains of all time. But only part of him. That's right, James actually only did the voice of Darth Vader in a vast majority of Star Wars media, including the films while the actor who plays him physically, varies from film to film. But despite doing the voice, he was uncredited in some of the media because he felt his work wasn't enough to get him recognition with Return of the Jedi being the only one where he gets credited. He was also the voice of Mufasa in the Lion King.
Michael Bay's Internship
This is going to shock a lot of you, but despite the films that he does, the thing many people often don't hear about from Michael Bay, is how he got into the film industry in the first place. It just so happens that he got an internship with George Lucas and helped him with the first Indiana Jones film Raiders of the Lost Ark, which before seeing the film, he thought was going to suck. But the film impressed him so much, that he become a film maker and as we all know, pretty much the majority of his films such and you'd think he'd do better since he was an intern for one of the biggest film makers out there, but I guess that's the way things go.
Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi were not directed by George Lucas
Despite all the changes that George Lucas has made to the films, some people may not know this, but he only directed 4 of the 6 and soon to be 7 films and as a result, these 2 films many believe seem to be the least changed out of the whole saga. It does make me wonder however if George Lucas were the director of these films, would there be much more changes than what we've been given. I mean all the films show signs of changes since they came out, but these 2 films I feel get the least amount of changes made because George Lucas didn't direct them. Kind of sounds odd in a way when you think about it. In addition, Return of the Jedi was actually going to be called Revenge of the Jedi and because of this, the second Star Trek film had to change its name too to avoid confusion which most likely will be the only time where Trek and Wars actually collide almost. Jedi was for a while called Blue Harvest to not have fans go over the sets and at one point, the film makers actually wanted to make a film called that, but this then ended up being the name of the Family Guy parody of the first film which George Lucas helped played a part in making.
Why Jar Jar Binks is in Star Wars in the first place
So yeah, everyone is in agreement that Jar Jar is regarded as a bad Star Wars character and a character of fiction in general. But it just so happens that he is the reason why Star Wars plays out the way it is. In Attack of the Clones, he is the one that is in favor of giving Chancellor Palpatine emergancy powers which in turn, gives him the power to overthrow the senate, wipe out the Jedi and begin the reign of Darth Vader and the dark side. That's right people, everything that happened in Star Wars post Old Republic, is all thanks to Jar Jar. One of the worst characters ever made, is also the character that sets everything in the franchise into motion. That is the only reason why he is even in Star Wars in the first place. The actor who plays Jar Jar Ahmed Best, appears out of costume in the background of one scene in a film.
What you may not know about Yoda
So from a bad character to a more beloved character. Yoda is a great Star Wars character who's species has never been revealed and it turns out that he was originally going to be a monkey with a stick. That I don't think would've worked quite as well as the finished character that we got. Also, in one draft of the Jedi script, he and Obi-Wan would've returned to their physical bodies to either help Luke in the battle against Palpatine, or to celebrate on Endor (the latter of which they did in the actual film, but not physically).
Who has appeared in the most Star Wars media?
So of all the characters that are seen in the Star Wars universe, there is actually a few who have appeared in all or most of it, the most notable of which is the droids R2-D2 and C3-PO who appeared in all the main films and a vast majority of other media (though not always together). Their appearances in Star Wars 7 will make them the most reoccurring of the characters in the whole franchise thus far. Also R2-D2 was thought of by Lucas during the making of American Graffiti and was originally going to talk fluent English, but would've been a bit more of a jerk (though he does speak in the Family Guy spoofs using the voice of Cleveland). The actor who plays C3-PO Antony Daniels, appears out of costume in the background of one scene in a film.
LEGO
So in the 90s, LEGO managed to get hold of the license to make products based on the Star Wars universe and the theme serves as both LEGO's longest running licensed theme without any hiatuses or discontinuations made (aside from old sets of course) and LEGO's first licensed theme, the success of which would lead them to acquire other licenses later on such as Harry Potter, Middle-Earth, Marvel and DC. The theme originally served as a replacement for LEGO's space sets and started out by doing sets for the then upcoming Phantom Meance before then expanding into the rest of the prequel trilogy and the original trilogy, the Clone Wars and the expanded universe. There have been countless sets made (even some with collector value) and its still going strong to this day. It even has its own place in the Star Wars saga with the Yoda Chronicles TV series. The largest of the UCS sets is a version of the Millenium Falcon which thus far, remains to this day as the largest LEGO Star Wars set ever made. The success of the theme would then lead to TT Games acquiring the license to make LEGO games with the first 3 being based on Star Wars, followed by a 4th one a few years later.
And these are just some of the many things that you may not know about Star Wars. Is there anything that I missed? Anything you think more people should know about that they don't with Star Wars? Well leave a comment below and keep talking about a franchise that is worth talking about. And may the Force be with you all.
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