Few movies have established such a loyal following as 1977’s Star Wars, and the now nine-part movie series—plus all of its later spinoffs—remains one of Hollywood’s best-loved franchises. Here are some facts and tales from the set of one of cinema’s most influential and eternally popular movie series.
A WASTE OF SPACE
When Disney bought LucasFilm in 2012, they valued the entire Star Wars universe at an incredible $4.2 billion. The four Star Wars movies that Disney has gone on to produce since have together grossed almost $5 billion, making Star Wars second only to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the world’s most profitable film franchise. But remarkably, when George Lucas first shopped his idea for what he originally called “The Star Wars” way back in 1974, two major studios passed on his idea: Both Universal Studios and United Artists turned Star Wars down before the story was picked up by 20th Century Fox, and in doing so lost a chance to own part of what is now a multi-billion-dollar industry.
HANS OFF
Once Lucas was given the go-ahead from 20th Century Fox, he took seven months to cast the 1977 movie. It was then that he brought in Harrison Ford, one of the stars of his previous movie, American Graffiti, merely as a stand-in to feed lines to the other actors (including a young Kurt Russell) who were auditioning for the movie. But Ford’s reading of Han Solo proved so much better than those who came in to audition that Lucas ultimately felt compelled to give him the part instead.
FORCED CHANGES
Not only was the original movie due to be called “The Star Wars,” but several key elements of the movie were changed before the cameras even started rolling. For one, Luke wasn’t originally called Skywalker but “Starkiller.” Yoda was “Buffy,” and when that name was changed, he was initially given the double-barreled title “Minch-Yoda.” The original Millennium Falcon spacecraft was cylindrical (and had its design changed when it was pointed out it looked too much like the ship in the campy British sci-fi series Space 1999). And, probably most remarkable of all to fans of the movie, at one point Obi-Wan was due to survive his lightsaber battle with Darth Vader—while Han Solo was at one point going to perish when being frozen in carbonite at the end of 1981’s The Empire Strikes Back.
DARTH VADER
It took three separate actors to bring the menacing Darth Vader to the screen in 1977. James Earl Jones famously gave his baritone voice to the character, recording all of the character’s lines in just two and a half hours. 6’6” bodybuilder and English character actor David Prowse was inside the costume for most of the film, while former Olympic gold-medal fencer Bob Anderson donned the black mask and cape for several of the movie’s lightsaber fighting scenes.
OBI GONE
Legendary actor Sir Alec Guinness famously didn’t quite know what he had got himself into when he accepted the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi in the original 1977 film. Although his appearance in the movie gave it some much-needed gravitas, Guinness later dismissed the story as “fairytale rubbish,” and admitted that he only accepted the part because the producers agreed to his demand that they double his salary. Once on set, his cantankerousness didn’t improve: “Can’t say I’m enjoying the film,” he wrote to his friend Anne Kaufman in 1976. “New rubbish dialogue reaches me every other day … and none of it makes my character clear or even bearable.” Despite all his reservations, Guinness went on to be nominated for an Oscar for his performance, yet even then wanted absolutely nothing to do with the next film in the series, The Empire Strikes Back. Eventually, Guinness begrudgingly agreed to reprise his role in Empire as a ghostly version of Obi-Wan, but only once George Lucas agreed that his scene be shot in a single day, between 8 a.m.–1 p.m., and that instead of a fee he be paid 0.25% of the film’s gross. Lucas happily agreed—and that arrangement meant that Guinness’ five hours of work eventually earned him more than $450,000.