Star Wars has grown from being a trilogy to a multi-headed beast of a franchise. There is no one on this entire planet that has never heard the term – Star Wars. The popular franchise has a fan-base that is half a century old and is adding newer installments that are enticing newer generations into their fold. But one of the world’s most profitable franchises also has some dirty little secrets that they don’t want you to know.
10. Star Wars’ Original Script was rejected… A LOT
When George Lucas came up with the script, all major production houses laughed at him on his face. United Artists downright rejected the Script. Universal asked Lucas to give them something serious. 20th Century Fox agreed to produce it but even they were unsure. Sci-Fi movies were practically non-existent in the 70s and nobody wanted to risk such a big gamble.
9. Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher had an affair
There’s a reason if you think that the scenes between Han Solo and Leia Organa were so damn romantic. They not only wrote their own lines for the movie, they even shared that romance off-screen. Ford was 33 and married with two kids while Leia was 19. They had a long romantic affair until the Trilogy came to an end.
8. R2D2 and C3PO weren’t on speaking terms
That old couple bickering vibe that the two droids gave out on screen wasn’t just artificial. The animosity between the two was very real. Anthony Daniels played C3PO while Kenny Baker played R2D2. Daniels never liked socializing with his co-stars and always referred to Baker as ‘Little Man’ on account of his dwarfism. They never talked with each other. Although, Daniels tweeted a heartwarming eulogy for Baker following the latter’s death in 2016.
7. George Lucas’ wife saved Star Wars
The original cut for A New Hope was uninteresting, repetitive and boring. Enter Marcia Lucas, George Lucas wife and award-winning editor who had worked with legends like Martin Scorsese. She ordered complete reshoots of certain scenes and made them more engaging. For her efforts, she was given an Oscar. Lucas and Marcia divorced later, part of the reason being that Marcia wanted Royalties from the Special Editions edits.
6. Alec Guinness hated Star Wars
Alec Guinness is better remembered as the actor who played Obi-Wan Kenobi. He even got an Oscar nomination for his role in Star Wars. The Wisdom and experience that emanated from Guinness’ Obi-Wan Kenobi is unrivaled to this date. But Guinness loathed the franchise. He once claimed the script for Star Wars was rubbish and begrudgingly agreed to sign an autograph for a young fan on the condition that the kid never watches the movie again.
5. Lucas was a massive Control Freak
Richard Marquand is credited with directing Return of the Jedi while Lucas is the Producer. But there were times when Lucas tried to take over the Director’s chair without permission. Several staff members left the production house out of frustration with Lucas’ antics. When the special effects for the movies were not up to Lucas’ standards, he burned 100,000 feet of film colloquially called the ‘Black Friday’ incident.
4. Lucas and Arndt were kicked off of The Force Awakens
Lucas Films was sold to Disney in 2012 and Lucas stepped out of being the guiding force for the franchise. Many fans were upset about Lucas no more being a part of Star Wars so Disney hired Lucas as a creative consultant. His ideas were uninteresting and so Lucas was completely slid off the Star Wars movies. Michael Arndt, award-winning screenwriter of Toy Story 3 was also given the pink slip when he asked for additional story development time.
3. Rogue One face extensive reshoots before release
Gareth Edwards is credited as the director of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. But before the movie released, Tony Gilroy, another director, was assigned to the movie who ordered extensive reshoots for the movie. What scenes were cut from the Original version, we will never know. But it is said that the scenes that were reshot included added time for Darth Vader and the reshoots helping to find a balance between the lighter and darker elements of the movie.
2. The Forgettable Holiday Special
George Lucas loathed the Holiday Special so much that one of the conditions for the Lucas Films being sold to Disney was that the Holiday Special shall never be aired again. Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher starred in this weird video that included several wookie dialogues by Chewie’s father without subtitles, an animated Boba Fett debut and a creepy ’Life Day’ song sung by Carrie Fisher herself (she did not remember it though coz of her drug problems at the time).
1. J.J Abrams replaces Colin Trevorrow as Episode IX Director
After the success of Jurassic World, Trevorrow was appointed as the Director of the Next installment of Star Wars. But Jurassic World opened to mixed reviews although it earned massive collections at the Box Office. Lucas Films grew skeptic when Trevorrow’s second directorial of 2017 The Book of Henry was a massive critical and commercial flop. In the hope of playing it safe, Trevorrow was fired and Abrams was hired to direct Episode IX. The release date was pushed almost a year to accommodate Abrams’ changes to a script that has already been through extensive re-writes.
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