You always knew there was something off about The Phantom Menace's closing scene...
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00:00What exactly were the Empire's iconic troopers originally designed to look like?
00:04Which actor has popped up in way more Star Wars outings than the average person likely knew?
00:09And who was really responsible for one of the last Jedi's most memorable one-liners?
00:14You likely already know somewhere in that head of yours.
00:17So let's rediscover those Star Wars truths together as father and son!
00:21Gareth here from WhatCulture Star Wars and here are 10 Star Wars facts you probably already knew deep down.
00:28Number 10, Mark Hamill was photoshopped into the 2005 Star Wars reunion photo.
00:34There was actually a moment back in 2005 when it seemed as though Vanity Fair had managed to pull off the admirable feat of getting absolutely every one of the famous Jedi, Sith, Rebels, Droids and alien beings from across the prequel and original trilogies inside of a room together for an epic photo reunion of sorts.
00:51Only as eventually revealed by Luke Skywalker himself, it turns out that General Grievous, Yoda and Jar Jar Binks weren't the only stars thrown into the shot in post-production.
01:01With Mark Hamill performing in eight shows a week on Broadway at the time of the shoot, photographer Annie Leibovitz instead shot him alone on that same set before eventually just photoshopping him into the mix later on.
01:13You knew it was always going to be a tall order trying to land on an exact date where this many massive Star Wars names were all free to pose.
01:20And sure enough, some 15 plus years later, the hero of the original trilogy finally confirmed that his theatre responsibilities forced some digital tinkering. George Lucas would be proud.
01:31Number 9, Rey was almost a Kenobi.
01:33Heading out of The Force Awakens, the question on just about every Star Wars fan's lips was exactly when did Stormtroopers learn how to hit the damn target? Oh, and who were Rey's parents?
01:43And while the answer to that question would finally come during The Last Jedi, only for it to then be hilariously retconned in The Rise of Skywalker, as Rey went from no one to Palpatine, in truth, your initial instincts may not have been as far from the truth as you thought.
01:56Or an early version of it at least. As revealed by Daisy Ridley herself on Jimmy Kimmel Live in 2020, one of the most popular fan theories of the time, her character actually being Rey Kenobi, was the direction J.J. Abrams and co were toying with going down.
02:11After Rey picked up Anakin's lightsaber in Episode 7, fans were quick to notice the voices of Obi-Wan actors Sir Alec Guinness and Ewan McGregor telling her, Rey, these are your first steps.
02:21So it was only natural for folks to join the dots and ponder whether Rey was actually somehow a part of the Kenobi family tree.
02:28And Ridley's comments seemingly confirmed that Abrams was at least leaning towards this being a possible outcome, back before Episode 8 and 9 were unleashed on this galaxy.
02:388. Stormtroopers were designed to look like mechanical skeletons
02:42What's the first thing that comes to your mind when looking at the infantry constantly found firing their blasters at rebel scum?
02:49Apart from the fact it must be bloody hard to see in those helmets, just ask Mark Hamill, it's probably that the Imperial stormtroopers often looked like a bunch of creepy plastic skeletons when moving around various hangars and alien locations.
03:01And this was actually George Lucas' specific intentions when it came to the design of the Empire's troops.
03:07Confirmed during a Wired interview with Lucasfilm Vice President Doug Chiang, the mind behind the galaxy Far Far Away wanted to create some particularly iconic imagery when forging his stormtroopers, and a design that made the soldiers look like living skeletons whenever they were on screens.
03:21You probably always knew these threatening troops get-ups were somewhat inspired by your own bones, and that was very much part of Lucas' plan a long time ago.
03:307. Leia's hairline was all Carrie Fisher in The Last Jedi
03:35On top of being a formidable thespian and the galaxy's favourite princess, the late great Carrie Fisher was also one hell of a writer.
03:42But you likely already knew that based on the star's work as a script doctor, and the fact that she'd penned her fair share of novels, screenplays and plays over the years.
03:51So you also probably knew deep down that the Leia Organa star would have had a hand in writing some of her iconic character's dialogue during her long-awaited return to the galaxy Far Far Away from The Force Awakens onwards.
04:03And that's precisely what went down while shooting Rian Johnson's The Last Jedi in particular.
04:07With the director eventually noting how one of the most typically Leia moments of the flick came right from the mind of Fisher, because of course it did.
04:15Speaking to the Daily Beast, Johnson noted that when Leia jokingly tells Luke that she knew he was going to spot that she'd changed her hair,
04:22during the first moment the pair had shared the screen together since Return of the Jedi, obviously that was her.
04:27Rest in power, princess.
04:296. Attack of the Clones recycled the Phantom Menace footage in the council chamber
04:34Episode 2 in the Skywalker Saga includes a scene which sees Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker talking to the council within the Jedi Temple.
04:42And if this scene involving the likes of Mace Windu and Yoda telling the two Jedi to track down a bounty hunter always felt a touch familiar,
04:49well that's because this moment was actually created thanks to a little help from some recycled footage from the prior entry.
04:55With a number of the actors who brought the various Jedi Masters on the council to life in the Phantom Menace not actually being available to shoot scenes in the follow-up,
05:03George Lucas instead opted to simply reuse the background footage seen when Qui-Gon was chatting to the council about his trip to Tatooine in Episode 1.
05:12It was likely a whole lot cheaper and simpler to just copy and paste this Coruscant backdrop into the 2002 sequel,
05:18rather than go through the process of having to completely recreate the council chamber digitally and recasting various Masters.
05:255. Palpatine's theme is actually present in the Phantom Menace
05:29As Episode 1 reaches its rousing conclusion, a gigantic parade takes place on the streets of Theed
05:35in the wake of defeating the Trade Federation and establishing peace between the people of Naboo and the Gungans.
05:41But listen very closely to the theme playing as Gungans and other Naboo natives cheer on the likes of Jar Jar Binks and co,
05:48and a rather frightening piece of foreshadowing gradually becomes noticeable.
05:51When you speed up the Emperor's theme from Return of the Jedi, it sounds remarkably just like the Oggy's Great Municipal Band tune heard here in the Phantom Menace.
06:00And with the first step of Sheev Palpatine's eventual grand plan to take over the galaxy being completed during the closing stages of Episode 1,
06:07it's clear that Lucas and the gang wanted to subtly inform audiences that, despite this initially looking like a triumphant day for the heroes,
06:15it was actually secretly a win for the dark forces of evil.
06:18It's pretty hard to unhear the similarities between the two themes once you play them back-to-back.
06:234. Mark Hamill has had a voiceover cameo in every Star Wars movie since 2015
06:29Though wonderful, Mark Hamill has forged quite the voiceover career over the last five decades,
06:34so it was pretty inevitable that the Luke Skywalker star would eventually find a way to lend his epic vocal talents to a number of other Star Wars figures at some stage.
06:43But what you may not be fully aware of is that the voice of the Joker, Chucky, and much more,
06:47has actually popped up in every Star Wars movie since 2015 in a vocal capacity.
06:52From the little alien being found shoving coins into BB-8 known as Dobu-Skye in The Last Jedi,
06:58to the character of Ovisium Bulio seen telling Finn to win the war in The Rise of Skywalker,
07:03Hamill can actually often be found being credited as William M. Patrick or Patrick Williams for these particular big screen cameos.
07:11A reference to his real-life brother's first names.
07:13And it also probably won't come as that much of a shock to discover that this voiceover icon
07:18has popped up in The Mandalorian as the voice of droid EV-99 and the Clone Wars series as Darth Bane II.
07:253. The Godfather reference in Return of the Jedi
07:29You probably already knew that the likes of George Lucas, Steven Spielberg,
07:32Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola were all real-life pals.
07:37And as a cheeky salute to his movie-making friends,
07:39Lucas found a way to throw the odd reference to his legendary director-mate's work into his Skywalker saga.
07:45It turns out that you were right to feel like you were somehow watching a rather
07:48iconic death scene unfolding once again during the opening stretch of Return of the Jedi.
07:53Episode 6 co-writer Lawrence Kasdan suggested the idea of Leia killing off the despicable Jabba the
07:59Hutt to Lucas, only for the Star Wars creator to decide that this would be the perfect opportunity
08:04to throw a nod to The Godfather into the latest chapter in the epic adventure.
08:09So Lucas settled on the strangulation of the giant space slug,
08:12with this moment being a direct homage to Mob Enforcer Luca Brasi's grisly end in Coppola's
08:17gangster classic. The way the camera lingers on a struggling Jabba as the life is squeezed out of
08:22him clearly mirrors the savage choking seen in that 1972 masterpiece. And the fact this was an
08:28entirely intentional tribute of sorts confirms something you likely always subconsciously
08:33assumed anyway. 2. Darth Vader was only 45 when he died
08:38Anakin Skywalker was just 22 years old at the time of his turning to the dark side,
08:43and ultimately becoming a crispy fried apprentice to the Emperor. And with the end of Episode 3 and
08:47beginning of Episode 4 only being 19 years apart, that eventually meant that by the time Darth Vader
08:53bit the dust in Return of the Jedi, the Jedi turned Sith turned Jedi was only 45. Admittedly,
08:59most likely assumed before the prequel trilogy was released, that the fallen Jedi was well into
09:04his 70s at the time of his passing in Luke's arms on the Death Star II. He was played by
09:09Sebastian Shaw who was 78 at the time of Return of the Jedi after all. And it's still easy to
09:14lose sight of the fact that Anakin was only in his mid-40s when taking in that emotional
09:18helmet reveal today. But after watching the likes of Episodes 1 to 3, and other post-prequel
09:23offerings, whilst also looking at where these events sit on the timeline, the fact that the
09:28most iconic big bad in the galaxy isn't actually as old as he appears in Episode 6 is evident.
09:33And it's a detail that has no doubt long been present somewhere deep within you too.
09:381. It took years for an on-screen reference to a bathroom to happen
09:42Can you honestly remember a single moment in the Skywalker saga when a character nipped off to the
09:47loo for a second mid-adventure? And while you may have assumed that you at least saw some version of
09:52a Star Wars bathroom or toilet at one stage in the original and prequel trilogies, in truth,
09:57it actually took nearly 40 years for the first ever canon lavatory to pop up in an on-screen
10:02Star Wars project. Said quote-unquote refresher arrived in the sixth season of the Clone Wars,
10:08during the Orders episode as fives wandered into one in the middle of a clone bar on Coruscant,
10:13with various toilets aka vac-tube appearances then coming in Andor and the Mandalorian in the
10:18years that followed too. It does seem somewhat bizarre to note that it took decades for the Star
10:23Wars universe to unleash its first few bathroom cameos. But the more you think about it, the more
10:28you've likely always known that this galaxy far, far away had long been oddly restroomless when it
10:33came to the tales being told on screen. And that's our list of any other Star Wars facts people
10:38probably already knew deep down. Well let us know all about them in the comments section right down
10:43below and don't forget to like, share and click on that subscribe button while you're down there.
10:46I've been Gareth from What Culture's Star Wars, may the force be with you, have a wicked day
10:50wherever you are in this galaxy and hopefully we will see you very, very soon. Bye-bye!