143 Pieces of Star Wars Trivia You Didn’t Know You Needed

In the world of popular culture, love it or hate it, the Star Wars movies are iconic. For 39 years, these movies have captured the imagination of children and adults around the world. In honor of the epic performance of Star Wars: The Force Awakens at the box office in recent months, we’ve pulled together the longest list of Star Wars Trivia you never realized you needed.

Now that Disney is behind the production of Star Wars, you can rest assured of one thing: the franchise will stretch on forever. Just like this list. If we’re missing something, just tell us and we’ll add it to the Star Wars trivia already listed here. There’s only one caveat – we gleaned most of this info from fan sites and movie-lover hangouts, so we can’t promise it’s 100% correct. If you spot an error, let us know (and point us towards the resource!). We’re normally sticklers for getting the facts straight, but this is several decades of cinema history and rumor….

Star Wars Episode I Trivia

Episode 1: Where it all began the second time around…

1. Titled The Phantom Menace, Star Wars Episode I was the 4^th Star Wars movie to be made and released.
2. Liam Neeson didn’t read a single word of the script before saying yes to the role of Qui-Gon Jinn. If he had, he might not have accepted.
3. Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace is the highest grossing movie to be nominated for a Razzie award, and although it was also nominated for Academy Awards, it only took home the Razzie for “Worst Supporting Actor”, which went to Ahmed Best (Jar Jar Binks).
4. George Lucas is good friends with Steven Spielberg, and made sure that his buddy’s alien, E. T., had a cameo in the Galactic Senate scene when Queen Amidala calls for a vote of no confidence in the chancellor.
5. The name for the senator that looked like E. T. is Senator Greblieps, which is Spielberg backwards.
6. George Lucas’ daughters, Katie and Amanda, are both in this movie. Katie appeared on screen and was credited using her stage name, Jenna Green. Amanda voiced two roles, both were credited as Tyger.
7. Jar Jar Binks was so hated that two fairly popular fan-edited versions of The Phantom Menace appeared online shortly after the film’s release. The majority of edits in The Phantom Edit removed Jar Jar, and The Phantom Edit: East Coast version changed Jar Jar and the Gungan’s speech to scrambled alien language with English subtitles.
8. Jabba the Hut is played by ‘himself’ according to the credits.
9. Episode I was the 2^nd Star Wars movie George Lucas directed. The first was the franchise’s first movie, Star Wars: A New Hope.
10. The “water” in Naboo’s waterfalls was actually salt.
11. Qui-Gon Jinn’s communicator was actually a Gillette Sensor Excel women’s razor with a fancy paint job and some tweaks.
12. Darth Maul was almost played by Benicio del Toro, but when most of Maul’s lines were cut, del Toro quit.
13. Jar Jar Binks was named by George Lucas’ son.
14. The original conception of The Phantom Menace featured B-movie actress Sybil Danning as a sexy witch who seduced Anakin to the dark side of the force. In 1985, her potential role was leaked by Starblazer As bad as The Phantom Menace was, that might have been worse…
15. Ewan McGregor was a big Star Wars fan as a kid, something that shows in his lightsaber duels in this movie. He kept making the sounds of the lightsaber during his fights, which had to be fixed in post-production.
16. The Phantom Menace was labeled as The Doll House when it was shipped to theaters.

Star Wars Episode II Trivia

We bet young George Lucas would have given the second trilogy this glance…(George Lucas circa 1986)

1. Hayden Christensen got the role of Anakin because he ‘looked good’ next to Natalie Portman.
2. Jonathan Brandis auditioned for the role of Anakin, along with Ryan Phillippe, Colin Hanks, and Paul Walker. Brandis committed suicide the year after its release.
3. Everyone loves to hate Jar Jar, which might be why this episode was known as “Jar Jar’s Big Adventure” in its production phase.
4. Speaking of Jar Jar, did you notice that he was a villain in this episode? As a stand-in for Amidala, he advocates giving Senator Palpatine supreme powers. Whoops.
5. The droid factory wasn’t in the original script. Lucas added it on the fly.
6. Samuel L. Jackson wanted a purple lightsaber to match his favorite color. He got his wish by asking Lucas.
7. The Easter Egg on the DVD for this film shows blooper reels, mostly of Hayden Christensen.
8. Of all the Star Wars films, this was the only one that didn’t rank as the highest grossing film of the year in North America when it was released. It took third place, beaten out by Spider-Man and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.
9. Trinity College in Dublin inspired the appearance of the Jedi Archives. See it on our Dublin episode.
10. This was the second most expensive Star Wars film to make, with a price-tag of $120 million USD; The Force Awakens was the most expensive ($200 million USD).
11. The character Aaysla Secura was not created by George Lucas. She arrived from the “Star Wars: Republic” comic series from Dark Horse Comics.
12. Rumor has it that the character Jango is named after…you guessed it. Django.
13. Christopher Lee, despite his age, did a fair amount of his own sword work. His stunts did require the help of a double, however.
14. Ewan McGregor appeared in Black Hawk Down at the same time as this film. He had to be clean-shaven and wear a buzz cut for the popular military flick, so a beard and hairpiece were made for scenes that were shot after Black Hawk Down filming began.
15. The code name for this film was “Cue Ball”.

Star Wars Episode III Trivia

Natalie Portman in Star Wars Episode III as Padme Amidala

1. George Lucas originally pictured General Grievous as a child in a floating chair. Thank goodness that idea was canned!
2. General Grievous ‘bark’ was actually George Lucas’ killer cough.
3. Guess who helped with some of the most difficult action sequences of this film? If you said Spielberg, you’re right…
4. There were 2,200 special effects shots in this episode. That’s more than the combined total for Episodes I and II.
5. Maybe Lucas overdid the effects – this was the only Star Wars movie to NOT receive an Oscar nomination for “Best Visual Effects’.
6. There are no clones in this movie. At least, no live actors playing them… it’s all CGI. In fact, no clone helmets or costumes were ever created.
7. Anakin Skywalker was diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder by a team of French researchers after this film screened. Can you blame them?
8. Spielberg used what he learned in Episode III to help him shoot War of the Worlds.
9. Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen weren’t born swordsmen. They trained in fencing and fitness for 2 months before shooting their fight sequences.
10. Etna in Italy erupted during production. The filmmakers used footage of the real Italian volcano as the volcanic eruption on Mustafar.
11. Speaking of Mustafar…it was Lucas’s personal conceptualization of hell. It’s scary enough for us.
12. The original cut of the film was 4 hours long, before a few scenes were left on the cutting room floor.
13. …like the one where Liam Neeson helped clarify how Jedi communicate from beyond the grave.
14. Hayden Christensen had to put on some serious weight for this film – 24.2 pounds.
15. The DVD version has an Easter Egg of Yoda dancing to the Roots “Don’t Say Nuthin’.”
16. Ewan McGregor used a looped reel of all of Alec Guiness’s scenes from the original movies so that he could get his character right.
17. Episode III was the highest-grossing film of 2005.
18. C-3PO’s shiny armor reflected all of the green screens on set, which left digital effects artists the hefty job of repainting his armor, frame-by-frame, during post-production.
19. After the opening battle, fans can catch a glimpse of the Millenium Falcon or a ship of the same class in the bottom right hand corner of the scene that shows the transport landing at the senate building.
20. Unlike most Star Wars films, this one wasn’t a stellar performer at awards ceremonies. It only received on Academy Award nomination, for Best Makeup, but lost to Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
21. Bai Ling filmed numerous scenes as Senator Bana Breemu for this film, but they were cut. Rumor has it that her posing in Playboy had something to do with their elimination, but Lucas claims he cut them months before her racy shoot.
22. Christopher Lee shot all of his scenes in two days so that he could get back to New Zealand, where he was shooting another film.
23. Crew member Roger Barton’s baby, Aiden, played infants Luke and Leia.

Star Wars Episode IV Trivia

Feel like a trip? Head to the Hotel Sididriss in Tunisia. Luke lived here in the first Star Wars.

1. Harrison Ford’s pay for Star Wars: Episode IV was a measly $10,000. That might explain why he was never too enthusiastic about the Star Wars films.
2. Alec Guiness, on the other hand, went from a Star Wars skeptic to a fan – thanks to the 2% of box office profits he made off the films, starting with this one.
3. Peter Mayhew, aka Chewbacca, had the easiest audition of the entire cast. All this hospital orderly had to do was stand up. At 7’2”, he was the perfect height for the hairy wookie.
4. Chewie wasn’t popular with studio executives – they wanted to put clothes on the hairy beast. Can you imagine a wookie in board shorts?
5. He was popular with the writers, however. The last line in the movie is him growling.
6. The trash compactor scene was tough on everyone. Chewie had it the worst, though. His suit stunk for the rest of filming.
7. Rumor has it that Mark Hamill hated the smell so much, he held his breath until a blood vessel burst in his face, which left the crew shooting him from one side only for the rest of the scene.
8. This was the first science fiction film to be nominated for a Best Picture Award.
9. Many of the buildings on Tatooine are still standing in Tunisia. In fact, if you feel like getting in touch with your inner geek, you can even stay overnight in Luke’s old home – it’s a hotel.
10. Originally, Luke Skywalker was going to be named Luke Starkiller. Luckily that never happened. Episode 7 could have been really confusing if an epic hero had the same last name as the worst weapon ever introduced into the Star Wars universe…
11. In early versions of the script, R2D2 spoke English.
12. A disco version of the music from this film was released and became a number 1 hit for 2 weeks in the year the movie was released (1977).
13. A young ‘Annikin’ appears in the 1974 draft of the film, which was then titled “The Star Wars”.
14. The original script began on the planet ‘Utapau’, which is a name Lucas tried to use as the original name for Tatooine before finally putting it into Star Wars: Episode III as a remote Outer Rim Territory.
15. In the original script, Annikin watches his brother Deak be killed by a Sith lord. He and his father then leave Utapau for Aquilae, which Annikin identifies as home. His father, Kane Starkiller, is a Jedi master.
16. The music in the Mos Eisley cantina on Tatooine was called “jizz”. Obviously not a name Lucas would choose today…
17. TIME magazine named Star Wars its movie of the year.
18. The original film opened in only 50 theaters.
19. The cast for the Mos Eisley Cantina was chosen with the help of a casting agency called Uglies Ltd. Their self-esteem must have been incredible…
20. C-3PO’s eyes were made of real gold, to help prevent corrosion.
21. While filming in Tunisia, C-3PO’s suit got so hot that the plastic and rubber joints were in danger of melting.
22. George Lucas originally envisioned Tatooine as a jungle…except George Lucas couldn’t handle the thought of spending months filming in one. Hence, the desert.
23. Lucas was petrified about the release of this film, especially after he showed it to several of his director pals (some of the best in the business) and it got a less than lukewarm response. Some even called it the “worst film ever made.” Ouch…

Star Wars Episode V Trivia

Coca-Cola promo for Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

1. One of the asteroids in this movie is a shoe.
2. …another is a potato.
3. Even the actors were surprised to learn that Darth Vader was Luke’s father. Mark Hamill found out only minutes before shooting the scene.
4. In the Wampa cave, the shot of Luke getting his lightsaber using the force was done by having him throw the lightsaber into the snow and running the scene backwards.
5. Yoda’s puppeteer, Frank Oz, did such a great job that George Lucas campaigned to have him nominated for “Best Supporting Actor”. But puppeteers aren’t recognized as actors.
6. In the Cloud City evacuation, one of the escaping civilians is carrying an ice cream maker. Fan fiction has given him a huge backstory to go along with it.
7. Lucas bankrolled this film himself, using $33 million from the first Star Wars and a bank loan.
8. The Echo Base troops were all Norwegian Mountain Rescue Skiers. Lucas made a large donation to the Norwegian Red Cross in exchange for their participation.
9. Speaking of Norway…the scene of Luke wandering around after escaping the Wampa cave was filmed when an actual snowstorm hit the cast and crew’s hotel in Norway. Irvin Kershner sent Mark Hamill out into it, while he and the crew filmed from inside the warm, dry lobby.
10. Poor Mark Hamill had a rough go of it in this film. He was bit by a non-venomous snake while filming the Dagobah scenes.
11. Rumor has it that he also had an auto wreck that led to plastic surgery on his face, which is why the Wampa scene took place – it had to be written in to explain the blatantly obvious injuries to his face. Some critics dispute the validity of this bit of trivia, though.
12. Despite his lack of luck in the injury department, Hamill opted to do almost all of his own stunts.
13. Mark Hamill’s son, Nathan, was born while he was shooting this film. That same day, rumor has it that Hamill broke his thumb on set.
14. On Dagobah, he hit his head 16 times before Irvin Kershner was happy with the scene in Yoda’s hut.
15. A full-size Millennium Falcon was constructed for the film, and weighed a whopping 23 tons.
16. The sound of the AT-AT walker’s footsteps was actually the noise made by a shearing machine being used to cut metal.
17. Wilhelm screams are used several times in the film.
18. Boba Fett is never named in the film. He is simply called ‘Bounty Hunter’. Thanks to Lucasfilm’s marketing efforts, you know his name.
19. The carbonite sequence with Harrison Ford existed, in part, because no one knew if Ford would sign on for the next two episodes. Fisher and Hamill were in, but Ford wasn’t sold on the idea that his character had anything left to offer the series. And besides…remember his paycheck from Episode I?
20. Lando Calrissian was initially conceptualized as a clone.

Star Wars Episode VI Trivia

Vader’s end. Not Sebastian Shaw’s most attractive look.

1. If you thought the Death Star in A New Hope and Return of the Jedi were the same size, think again. The Return of the Jedi version was 460% larger.
2. The Jabba Palace sequence was as big as Jabba the Hutt – there were 42 extras, 18 principle cast members, and nine mime artists on set, not to mention the 90 crew members who participated in making the sequence a reality.
3. Carrie Fisher became the poster-model for ‘wardrobe malfunction’ thanks to her refusal to use tit tape.
4. Ewoks are really just half-sized wookies, or so the theory goes. Lucas had wanted to use a Wookie army on Endor, but decided to cut the wookie in half and wound up with the Ewok.
5. Speaking of Ewoks, no one says the word during Return of the Jedi. Thank Lucas’ marketing team for making it a term almost everyone knows.
6. Return of the Jedi was called Blue Harvest in its production phase. Family Guy later made a Star Wars spoof by that name.
7. Spielberg and Lucas are buds, which is why Lucas wanted Spielberg to direct this film. BUT he got into hot water with the Director’s Guild over not putting credits at the start of his films. The result? The guild forbade Spielberg from directing Return of the Jedi.
8. The name “Blue Harvest” harks back to Red Harvest, a novel written in 1929 that inspired the movie Yojimbo, which inspired George Lucas to write Star Wars.
9. There were several drafts of Episode VI, and in one, Obi-Wan and Yoda were supposed to return to their physical bodies to help Luke defeat the Empire. Zombies and Star Wars probably wouldn’t mix well, so it’s a good thing that never happened…
10. The original title for Episode VI was Revenge of the Jedi, but Revenge of Khan (also renamed to prevent confusion, and titled Wrath of Khan) was coming out at the same time, and besides – revenge isn’t really a Jedi thing. Collectors can still find a poster or two with the original title, however.
11. The idea that Vader was Luke’s father was so difficult to believe that a special scene had to be included, where Yoda told Luke the truth. Lucas feared that if that didn’t happen, kids around the world wouldn’t believe it was true.
12. Yoda was chosen to make this revelation because he was perceived as honest and trustworthy.
13. Some versions of the script toyed with the idea of Luke turning to the dark side and becoming Vader after killing his father.
14. Mark Hamill was in favor of an evil Luke.
15. Rumor has it that Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford were an item at some point during production – that might or might not be supported by his grabbing her breast outside the bunker on Endor in this film.
16. Endor is a village in the Bible and the kingdom of Middle-Earth in Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings, as well as the forest moon in Star Wars.
17. Sir Alec Guiness filmed his part in one day – he’d waffled on participating in the film at all due to an eye surgery and eventually decided in favor of it.
18. Lando’s co-pilot speaks a Kenyan language, Haya, which thrilled Kenyan audiences.
19. Admiral Ackbar originally said “It’s a trick!”. Negative reactions during screening led to it being reshot with the new and famous line, “It’s a trap!”
20. Lucas was clueless about Boba Fett’s popularity, and when he found out, even toyed with the idea of an escape from the Sarlacc pit for the 2004 DVD release, but eventually decided against it.

Star Wars Episode VII Trivia

The Force Awakens was reminiscent of the original trilogy – and included the original principle cast.

1. Star Wars fan Daniel Fleetwood was granted a special screening before the movie’s release after an extensive campaign by John Boyega and Mark Hamill. He died from cancer on November 10, 2015, before the film was publicly released.
2. To keep the film’s aesthetic as close to the original trilogy as possible, CGI use was minimized and miniature models were heavily used.
3. Composer Michael Giacchino is credited as a Stormtrooper for this film, which is the only Star Wars movie to not have a musical script by him included.
4. Hamill was thrilled by the chance to reprise his role, but reportedly kept his cool when Lucas told him about the film. Fisher was equally excited – both knew that the tough one to convince would be Harrison Ford.
5. In 2014, Harrison Ford broke his ankle during filming. JJ Abrams hurt his back helping Harrison Ford out from under the door that broke it.
6. Oscar Isaac’s uncle is a huge Star Wars fan, and was cast as a villager on Jakku.
7. JJ Abrams refused to direct the film until Kathleen Kennedy spent one month with him in negotiations, convincing him to take on the project.
8. Casting was so last minute that just a few hours before it was due to begin, Oscar Isaac wasn’t sure if he would be attending the table read in London or taking a flight back to the US.
9. The line “I used to be…” in response to Rey and Finn’s question if Han Solo is THE Han Solo is a reply Harrison Ford often give to his fans.
10. JJ Abrams’ former personal assistant made her mark on the film. Oscar Isaac’s character, Poe Dameron, is named after her (Morgan Dameron) and her daughter’s stuffed polar bear (Poe).
11. Carrie Fisher’s daughter makes her screen debut in this film, wearing her mother’s iconic “Leia buns”.
12. This film had the highest budget of any Star Wars film to date.
13.  The chess game is the same one that was seen in A New Hope, and it continues playing from the same point that we saw in that first Star Wars film.
14. Finn is Stormtrooper FN-2187. Leia was held in cell 2187 on the Death Star.
15. Alec Guiness had a posthumous line in this movie. He says “Rey” in the line “Rey, these are your first steps.” A soundbite of him saying “afraid” was trimmed to achieve this effect. Ewan McGregor says the rest of the line.
16. Daniel Craig of James Bond fame is the Stormtrooper who releases Rey from the chair. He’s uncredited.
17. We don’t know what they paid him for this Star Wars, but Harrison Ford finally got top billing – something he doesn’t have in any of the other Star Wars films.
18. In keeping with Star Wars tradition and the desire to make this movie feel like the originals, you can hear a Wilhelm Scream effect when Poe and Finn steal the TIE fighter.

Star Wars Episode VIII Trivia

We’re just hoping to see more of BB-8.

1. John Boyega said this script is much darker. We can expect a more physical role for him – he’s been training.
2. Finally, Benicio del Toro will be the villain in a Star Wars movie. This one.
3. …but he wasn’t first pick. Jaoquin Phoenix was.
4. The female lead is Gugu Mbatha-Raw, who beat out Olivia Cooke, Gina Rodriguez, and Tatiana Maslany.
5. Some filming for this movie took place on Skellig Michael, off the coast of Ireland – where Episode VII ended.
6. Rumor has it that we might see Harrison Ford again…perhaps as a flashback?
7. Rian Johnson wrote the script before seeing The Force Awakens.
8. The target release date was pushed back by several months to make room for changes to the script. It’s now set for release on December 15^th, 2017.

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Christina Boyes

I'm a fan of honest words, clarity, and impact. A writer, editor, and translator, I spend my days guzzling coffee like a champ, living the expat dream, and being mom to world's sweetest preschooler. I’m co-owner and copywriting head at Rusmexus Writers, a history buff, and have a background in international relations.