star wars cockpit display screens quotation

Not sure if this is the RIGHT place for this question but, I wanted to see if anyone knows.  Many years ago, I picked up a Hydra Cockpit for $250... anyone who knows classics, knows it was a star wars.  It even had all the original stick with the graphics inside it.   I spent many months using a very light paint stripper to get the side art back out, most of it is in pretty good shape but, not all of it.  After that, rewiring it with the original harness with all parts to make it all work, Still a holy grail type thing. It"s been a passion of love on this classic game. It all worked, even the coin slot.. but, I have it set on free play.

As most people should know, Star Wars used a Color XY monitor(that was know to have a very high failure rate in the arcades).   The Hydra had a shelf put in and a 19" color monitor.  I was able to find a 19" Color XY monitor(from a stand up star wars, I had one that was badly water damaged for a bit) for a good deal years ago, this got it up and running.  Over the years, I was trying to find the parts to put the ORIGINAL 25" monitor in , I was able to find an original tube (had to drive almost 5 hours each way to get it), all the boards and should have everything I need to get it running BUT, the Flyback transformer is shot (big red as it"s called), for those who don"t know, it"s the high voltage part of a CRT with the suction cup. When I looked into years ago, I was talking $350-400 minimum to get it replaced/fixed, the project has sat in a box and nothing has been done besides it"s been working... till about a week ago.

Anyone have a star wars cockpit that can pull off the back cover and take a few pictures how the 25" tube is mounted so I can make sure I do it right ?

star wars cockpit display screens quotation

In the meantime, I"ve discovered that these cockpits were not meant to be taken apart. The way they are constructed makes it incredibly difficult to actually remove pieces. Notice what Patonaud says here in an earlier thread post...

I asked him about this and basically, he had to destroy his cockpit because it got stuck when he was trying to install it. Basically, Atari didn"t want people deconstructing it and the way they assembled it makes it incredibly difficult to hack up. Unfortunately, I have no choice and need to get this thing a bit smaller and lighter because it"s going in my basement. If I don"t take the arches off, it will get stuck in my bulkhead just like Pat"s did. So off to work we go...

In order to get the top arches off, I had to break a piece. No worry, I can recreate this later and the plan is to put back the arches in such a way that they can actually be removed later, should the game need to come out of the basement someday. For now, take a look at my special edition drop-top Star Wars...

Probably the biggest update to share however is akin to the saying "when it rains, it pours." While doing this restoration, a fellow Pinsider reached out to me (vidgameseller) and informed me that he had another SW cockpit that he was looking to get rid of. After a 6 hour round-trip yesterday, well...then there were 2...

The 2nd cockpit is in a little worse shape than the original one I started with (Troy said as much when we first communicated). It"s ridonkulously dirty and needs a bit more cab work. That said, it"s complete just like mine and has incredible potential to be brought back to life.

When I"m done with my restore, I"m going to sell the 2nd SW cockpit as I refuse to hoard this incredible game. In the meantime, it"ll serve nicely as a template!

star wars cockpit display screens quotation

The skeleton that C-3PO passes belongs to a Tatooine creature called a Greater Krayt Dragon. This artificial skeleton was left in the Tunisian desert after filming, and still lies there. During filming of Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002), the site was visited by the crew once more, and the skeleton was still there. In The Mandalorian The Mandalorian: Chapter 9: The Marshal (2020), locals on Tatooine join with Sand People to fight and kill one of these serpents.

After visiting the set of Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), George Lucas was sure Close Encounters would outperform the yet-to-be-released Star Wars at the box office. Steven Spielberg disagreed, and felt Lucas" Star Wars would be the bigger hit. In the idea of getting a compensation if Star Wars were a box office bomb, Lucas proposed a gentlemen"s pact (as they were close friends from the university), trading two and a half percent of the profit on each other"s movies. Spielberg accepted the deal, and he still receives two and a half percent of the profits from this movie (as Lucas receives the same from the Close Encounters).

During the scene on the Death Star right after Ben leaves to shut down the tractor beam, Chewbacca barks something to Luke to which Han says, "Boy, you said it Chewie." Backstage footage reveals that what Chewbacca says is, "The old man"s gone mad."

When the Stormtroopers enter the room where C-3PO and R2-D2 are hiding, one of the actors accidentally bumps his head on the doorway. It was always believed that this happened due to the actor"s limited visibility. However, British actor Laurie Goode, who claimed to be the one inside the suit, later said that he was distracted by an upset stomach that day. Four takes of the shot were filmed that day, and the last one which included the bump made it into the movie. When the special edition came out in 1997, a sound effect had been added to the scene to accompany the head bump, and as a sort of "homage" to the goof, George Lucas had Jango Fett bang his head on a door in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002).

Carrie Fisher"s breasts were taped down with Gaffer"s tape, as her costume did not permit any lingerie to be worn underneath. She joked later, "As we all know, there is no underwear in space." Contradicting this claim was Leia"s gold bikini in Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983).

This is the only Star Wars movie where Darth Vader"s signature theme "The Imperial March" is not played in some form or another, as it had not been written at the time.

Out of all six live-action Star Wars films from the original and prequel trilogies, this is the only one to feature profanity more than once. "Hell" and "damn" are used several times, and R2-D2 "swears" in droid language, but he only chirps and beeps. The language was added to get the movie a PG rating, and avoid its being stereotyped as a G-rated "kids" movie".

George Lucas waived the normal writer and director fee, and asked for a mere $175,000 plus 40% of the merchandising rights. After the failure of Doctor Dolittle (1967), when its massive merchandising push proved an equally costly debacle, studio executives saw little, if any, profit from such matters and agreed. Star Wars-related merchandise has since generated many millions of dollars in sales, allowing Lucas to make movies completely independent of the studio system he decried. Merchandising rights are now a major part of any movie contract.

The accounts on how Alec Guinness regarded the movie and his work on it vary greatly. He frequently recalled the experience of making the movie as a bad one, and consistently claimed that it was his idea to have his character killed off in the first movie, so as to limit his involvement and make sure he "wouldn"t have to carry on saying these rubbish lines." He later mentioned to "shrivel up" each time someone mentioned the movie. In one particularly infamous incident, a young boy, asking for his autograph, proudly told him he had seen the movie over a hundred times, and Guinness gave it to him after promising to never watch it again. He also claimed to throw away all Star Wars related fan mail without even opening it (a logical paradox, making it likely that this is not true, as his journals report what some of this mail said in detail), because he hated the fact that he would be most remembered as Obi-Wan Kenobi, despite other roles which he held in much higher regard. Contrary to all this, George Lucas has said he made the decision to kill off Kenobi, since the character had no part to play in the movie"s finale, and deserved a memorable exit. According to George Lucas, Guinness was "less than happy" that his character was dying earlier than expected, and even appeared to enjoy his time on-set. Lucas, Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fisher have always stated how patient and helpful Guinness was on the set, and praised his professionalism and respectfulness to all cast and crew members. While Guinness made no secret that he disliked the dialogue in Lucas" script, he claimed that he accepted the role for two reasons: 1) He was an admirer of Lucas" previous movie, American Graffiti (1973) and 2) The narrative compelled him to read the whole script through to the end, in spite of not liking the dialogue, and not being a fan of science fiction. Of the final movie, he remarked that he found it "staggering as spectacle and technically brilliant, exciting, very noisy, and warmhearted. The battle scenes at the end go on for five minutes too long, and some of the dialogue is excruciating, and much of it is lost in noise, but it remains a vivid experience."

The 2003 book, "Alec Guinness: The Authorised Biography", reprints several letters that Guinness wrote to his longtime friend and correspondent, Anne Kaufman, in which he expressed his displeasure with and dubiousness about the quality of this movie as it was in production. Before filming started, he wrote, "I have been offered a movie (Twentieth Century Fox) which I may accept, if they come up with proper money. London and North Africa, starting in mid March. Science fiction, which gives me pause, but is to be directed by Paul (sic) Lucas, who did American Graffiti (1973), which makes me feel I should. Big part. Fairy-tale rubbish, but could be interesting perhaps." Then, after filming started, he wrote to Kaufman again to complain about the dialogue and describe his co-stars: "new rubbish dialogue reaches me every other day on wadges of pink paper, and none of it makes my character clear or even bearable. I just think, thankfully, of the lovely bread, which will help me keep going until next April. I must off to studio and work with a dwarf (very sweet, and he has to wash in a bidet) and your fellow countrymen Mark Hamill and Tennyson (that can"t be right) Ford. Ellison (? - No!), well, a rangy, languid young man who is probably intelligent and amusing. But Oh, God, God, they make me feel ninety, and treat me as if I was one hundred six. Oh, (the actor"s name is) Harrison Ford, ever heard of him?"

Harrison Ford was originally not allowed to audition, as he had starred in American Graffiti (1973), also directed by George Lucas. Lucas originally intended to use only new faces for this movie, but after using Harrison Ford to read lines with actors and actresses auditioning for the other roles, he realized Ford was the best actor for the part of Han Solo.

The shoot-out between Han Solo and Greedo inside the Cantina was the subject for a lot of controversy and debate amongst Star Wars fans as to who shot first. Many fans debated that Greedo actually shot first a split second before Solo did, but with careful examination of the scene, it was obvious that Greedo never fired his shot at all. For the 1997 Special Edition release of this movie, George Lucas had edited the scene to include Greedo shooting first at Solo at point blank range, with Solo moving his head slightly to the right to dodge the shot before firing back at Greedo. This caused perhaps the worst backlash of all the alterations made to the original trilogy from outraged fans, although it was technically not George Lucas" fault: when submitting the movie to the MPAA, they had insisted he put it in there in order for the movie to keep its PG rating. To appease the fans, the shooting scene was edited for a third time for the 2004 DVD release, so that both Greedo and Han Solo fired their guns more or less at the same time. It was trimmed by 11 frames for the 2011 Blu-Ray release, which brings the scene back to its original length, even though they still shoot simultaneously.

When Obi-Wan is giving a short history of the Jedi Order and Luke"s father in his house on Tatooine, a patch can be seen on the right shoulder of his robe. It is explained in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005) how this robe got damaged.

In 2010, George Lucas sent Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, the executive producers of Lost (2004), a letter congratulating them on the show"s end and letting them in on some (possibly facetious) secrets about his development of the Star Wars film franchise: "Don"t tell anyone, but when Star Wars first came out, I didn"t know where it was going either. The trick is to pretend you"ve planned the whole thing out in advance. Throw in some father issues and references to other stories, let"s call them homages, and you"ve got a series."

When first released in 1977, this movie was simply titled "Star Wars", as it was intended to be a stand-alone movie. The sequels were not considered until after it became wildly successful. The name of this movie was changed to "Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope" in 1981 to fit in better with the names of the other movies. The later print was the first one to be released on mass market video (an earlier Betamax release did not have the subtitle), and all video, LaserDisc, DVD, and Blu-ray releases have featured the subtitles. The theatrical cut DVDs, released in September 2006, were the first time that the original opening crawl, without subtitle, had been released on home video. The reason George Lucas created the title card "Episode IV" in the first movie was as an homage to 1940"s Saturday afternoon "cliffhanger" serials, like Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon. He also used the "text crawl" the same way each of those series opened up new chapters. He did not, at the time, have Episodes I, II, and III already planned. In fact, at one point, Twentieth Century Fox wanted the "Episode IV" title removed so as not to confuse moviegoers. There are some prints of the movie that do not have that title card.

The famous Darth Vader suit was designed by production designer Ralph McQuarrie, who was concerned about the character being able to breathe while he was travelling from his spaceship to Princess Leia"s spaceship. It was not explained why Darth Vader wears the suit at all times until Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980). The look of the Darth Vader suit was based on robes worn by Bedouin warriors.

During production, George Lucas referred to this movie as a "Disney movie", trying to capture the whimsy of classic 1950s Disney family movies, one of Lucas" favorites being Swiss Family Robinson (1960). Coincidently, more than thirty years after the release of this movie, the Walt Disney Company would acquire Lucasfilm, Lucas" production company, including all rights to the "Star Wars" stories and characters for four billion dollars, thus the movie actually became a Disney movie in 2015.

The "TIE" in "TIE Fighter" is an acronym, standing for "Twin Ion Engines." Modelmaker Joe Johnston came up with this acronym. In the "Making of Star Wars" book, he mentions another possibility had been "Third Intergalactic Empire".

A fierce sandstorm destroyed several of the Tatooine sets in the desert outside Tozeur, Tunisia. Filming resumed two days later. The same thing happened to George Lucas twenty-two years later while filming Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999).

A small pair of metal dice can be seen hanging in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon, as Chewbacca makes preparations to depart from Mos Eisley. Set Designer Roger Christian claims he added the pair of dice hanging in the Millennium Falcon cockpit (briefly seen when Chewbacca bumps his head on them as he first enters) because there were dice hanging in Harrison Ford"s car in American Graffiti (1973). However, Ford"s character had a skull hanging from his rear-view mirror. Ron Howard had the fluffy dice. They don"t appear in subsequent scenes because they were stolen from the set and never replaced. In the Han Solo backstory film Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), Han hangs a pair of them in the stolen speeder and they can also be seen in Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017), given to Leia by Luke.

John Williams" score features cues inspired by several classical works. The music in the scene where the Millennium Falcon is pulled into the Death Star resembles "Mars, The Bringer Of War" by Gustav Holst. Parts of the Tatooine music resembles selections from Igor Stravinsky"s Sacre Du Printemps.

Princess Leia is stunned by a stormtrooper in the opening scene. This is the only time an Imperial blaster is fired in stun mode in the Star Wars saga.

Darth Vader"s breathing was originally meant to be much more labored and raspy. The sound of this more labored, raspy breathing would be used later on in Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983), during that movie"s climax.

The origin of R2-D2 can be found in the "drones" Huey, Dewey, and Louie from Silent Running (1972). Upon meeting Douglas Trumbull, Director and Special Effects Chief on Silent Running (1972), George Lucas commented on how much he liked the designs of Trumbull"s two-footed robots in the movie, which were operated by bilateral amputees. Five years later, a functionally similar design appeared as R2-D2 in this movie. Universal Pictures, the distributor of Silent Running (1972), noted the similarity between the robots (and the similarity of Star Wars to the Buck Rogers (1939) serials of the 1930s), and promptly sued Twentieth Century Fox for infringement. The lawsuit was eventually settled when Fox counter-sued over Battlestar Galactica (1978), which bore a striking resemblance to this movie.

In a television interview circa 2012, Carrie Fisher discussed the after-market royalties for the Star Wars characters and joked that "now, every time I look in a mirror, I have to pay George Lucas a couple of bucks."

Unlike Sir Alec Guinness, who grew to regret appearing in this movie despite it revitalizing his career and earning a considerable income from it, Peter Cushing, who was a long-time star of genre movies, was pleased to be a part of this movie, and his only regret was that he could not appear in the sequels.

In an earlier version of the script, the Millennium Falcon does not land on the Death Star, but at a Cloud City that floats above the gaseous surface of the planet Alderaan. The rescue of Princess Leia and Obi-Wan Kenobi"s duel with Darth Vader take place at this base, not on the Death Star. A cut in the budget for the movie forced George Lucas to bring in the Death Star early, and in the finished movie, the scenes that would have taken place in the Cloud City take place there, instead. The Cloud City, of course, was later used in Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980). Since Alderaan was destroyed in this movie, however, it obviously could not be the location of the Cloud City. So a new planet was created to house the Cloud City: Bespin.

Most of the planets, moons, et cetera seen in the movies were just balls that were painted. However, unlike the planets, an actual model was built of the Death Star, because there were constant shots of vehicles approaching it.

The "Star Wars" visual dictionary by David West Reynolds and James Luceno mentions that Han Solo was raised by space gypsies and never knew who his real parents were. This was changed in the later prequel Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), where Han is an orphan, raised as a thief by a crime syndicate on the planet Corellia.

While the shot where the escape pod leaves Leia"s ship was the first ever completed by Industrial Light & Magic, the first shot actually approved by George Lucas for the movie was a shot of the laser cannons in the Death Star trench.

The Tatooine scenes were filmed in Tunisia. There is a town in Tunisia"s rural south named Tataouine (Berber for "eyes"), and George Lucas liked the name so much, he adopted it for Luke Skywalker"s home world. Some of the interiors and the courtyard of Luke"s house were filmed in a hotel in Matmata, Tunisia. One can visit this two-star hotel and see some pictures and the painted ceiling of what was used for the Lars" dining room. When Luke goes out of the farm, he appears in a flat deserted area, while the reality, when you get out of the hotel, there are a lot of other houses, small stone hills, and a lot of prickly pear cacti (a variety very common in Tunisia).

George Lucas had Industrial Light & Magic watch archival footage of World War II dogfights as reference material for the final battle over the Death Star. The practice evolved into pre-visualization "animatics" used today. Former fighter pilots were employed as technical advisors. Audio recordings of radio communications made during dogfights were studied, to help with the dialogue.

Twentieth Century Fox green-lit the movie, despite marketing surveys indicating little or no interest amongst potential moviegoers in a science fiction movie. A related survey also resulted in a strong dislike of the title, as the word "Wars" held negative connotations for much of the general public during the immediate aftermath of the Vietnam War.

During a holiday break for Christmas in 1976, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher spent a few days in New York City together. One evening they saw a movie together, and a trailer for Star Wars happened to be shown prior to the feature. Hamill recalls that upon the ending of the trailer, a heckler shouted, "Coming soon to the Late Show!"

Luke went through several changes. George Lucas toyed with the idea of changing him into a woman, after cutting Princess Leia from the script. He also entertained the notion of casting the principal characters as dwarves. In an early screenplay, Skywalker was a sixty-year-old General, a character which was later reworked into Obi-Wan Kenobi. In the shooting script, he was called "Luke Starkiller", but this was changed to Luke Skywalker during production. "Starkiller" was eventually used in a video game Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (2008) as the name of the protagonist.

Joe Maddalena of Profiles in History acquired the Panavision camera that filmed this movie from Carrie Fisher"s brother, Todd Fisher. On Maddalena"s television show, the short lived series Hollywood Treasure (2010), the camera was featured at the Profiles in History private auction and was sold for an astounding five hundred twenty thousand dollars, making it the most valuable piece of Star Wars memorabilia in the world. The ironic thing about the entire situation: Joe Maddalena, before the auction commenced, had heavy doubts that the camera would even be sold, as in nobody having any interest in the camera whatsoever. The bid was the biggest shock of Maddalena"s career.

George Lucas wanted TIE Fighters to move by very fast in the Death Star escape sequence. His crew thought this meant a ship moving by the ship"s window in three to four seconds, when Lucas wanted them to go past in about half a second. This led to the movie crew moving the backgrounds, in additions to the TIEs themselves, to create a greater illusion of speed.

Apart from influences from Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, and Frank Herbert"s "Dune", George Lucas was inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien"s "Lord of the Rings" fantasy novel, as well as many Japanese samurai movies, when he wrote the Star Wars story. Akira Kurosawa"s The Hidden Fortress (1958), which also deals with a famous warrior, and a Princess who needs to be moved safely to allied territory while being pursued by hostiles, especially served as an inspiration. As an homage, Lucas has Admiral Motti refer in the movie to the Rebel"s secret base as their "hidden fortress", although the last word is muffled when his throat is grabbed by Vader"s psychic attack.

At the time of his casting for the movie, Mark Hamill was under contract to co-star on Eight Is Enough (1977). Hamill tried to get out of his contract for the show, as between shooting schedules and filming locations, there was no way he could do both. After filming the pilot for the television series, he was involved in an auto accident damaging his face. This resulted in the television producers deciding to let him out of his contract for the series, enabling him to take the part of Luke.

Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca) kept his job as an orderly in the hospital through the first three movies, but fell in love with the character. As Star Wars grew in fame, and he started doing more festivals and public appearances, he realized that he could actually make a living just off the personal appearances.

WILHELM SCREAM: The film revived and re-popularized the "Wilhelm Scream" sound effect, first used in Distant Drums (1951). It"s first heard when Luke blasts a Stormtrooper from across the Death Star chasm.

There are twenty-eight optical wipes in the original version of the movie. The source for this is the original theatrical version included on Disc 2 of the Widescreen Limited Edition DVD, 2006. Wipes were a notable scene transition device in movie serials of the 1930s and 1940s, especially in the Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers serials by Universal Pictures, which were among of the many inspirations for the Star Wars saga.

Twentieth Century Fox didn"t like the title "Star Wars" and wanted to rename the movie. In a 2013 "Nerdist" podcast, Mark Hamill said that one of their concerns was they thought that potential female audiences (already a group they thought would be unlikely to enjoy science fiction) would be turned off by the word "wars" in the title. Hamill also said that another reason they wanted to change the title was that a rather large percentage of the Twentieth Century Fox focus group members who heard the title (Hamill said thirty percent) thought that the movie must be a "behind-the-scenes look at the Elizabeth Taylor-Richard Burton marriage."

Several scenes were filmed of Luke with his friends on Tatooine, in an effort to introduce the main character earlier in the movie. First, Luke watches Princess Leia"s ship battle with the Imperial cruiser in the sky overhead through his binoculars, and later he meets his best friend Biggs Darklighter in Anchorhead, who has left the Imperial Academy and plans to join the Rebel Alliance. Also present in the Anchorhead scenes were Anthony Forrest as Fixer and Koo Stark as Fixer"s girlfriend Cammie. All e these scenes were later cut, leaving Luke"s mention of Biggs to his aunt and uncle as the sole reference to his character early on. The scenes have never officially appeared in any release of the movie, but stills were included in "The Story of Star Wars" (a book-and-record set), and the scenes also appeared in the comic book and novel adaptations. This has led several people to believe they actually saw the scenes on the silver screen. All of the scenes were included on the CD-Rom "Star Wars: Behind the Magic" in 1998. A reunion scene between Luke and Biggs at the Rebel base was included in the Special Edition re-release of the movie. However, a line by Red Leader about having once met Luke"s father was cut from this exchange. All of these scenes were fortunately included as bonus material on the 2011 Blu-Ray boxed set.

There are actually two different actors portraying Wedge Antilles in the movie. The first one is Colin Higgins, who remained uncredited. He is sitting beside Luke during the strategy meeting with the Rebel pilots before the Battle of Yavin (the one who says "That"s impossible! Even for a computer."). However, he was dismissed after only one day of shooting and was replaced by Denis Lawson for the filming of the cockpit scenes. Both actors" voices were later overdubbed by David Ankrum. Today, Higgins" version of the character is known amongst Star Wars fans as "Fake Wedge". In 2017, the short story anthology "From a Certain Point of View" canonized the "Fake Wedge" character of having the name "Col" (likely because it is the first three letters of "Colin") and it was specified that the character had often been mistaken for Wedge, and was given the "Fake Wedge" nickname.

In March 1983, U.S. President Ronald Reagan proposed a massive, technologically complex defensive system that was intended to defend the country from nuclear attacks by intercepting intercontinental ballistic missiles using laser battle stations based both on Earth and in space. This project"s official name was the "Strategic Defense Initiative" (SDI), but given that many aspects of the proposal were previously familiar to the public only from science fiction, it was quickly dubbed "Star Wars," after this movie. At first, this nickname was used in a largely derogatory manner (for example, the day after Reagan"s speech introducing SDI to the nation, Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy was quoted in the Washington Post calling the initiatives "reckless Star Wars schemes") and the Reagan administration"s official policy was to avoid the use of the nickname "Star Wars," but it nonetheless quickly became a neutral shorthand used by the government, the press, and the general public alike. SDI has never come remotely close to being instituted.

The scene between Luke and Obi-Wan in Obi-Wan"s house was originally written and edited to have the dialogue in a different order. It originally began with Obi-Wan immediately listening to the message in R2-D2. Leia"s mention of the Clone Wars is what leads Luke to ask Ben about his service in them, which is what leads to discussing Luke"s father, his lightsaber, and the Force. It was changed when George Lucas and his editors decided that there seemed to be no urgency to Leia"s message if Luke and Obi-Wan were having another casual conversation immediately afterwards. As it is edited now, they first discuss Anakin and the Force, and listen to Leia"s message much later in the scene, and immediately afterwards, Obi-Wan begins talking about going to Alderaan. The rearranging of shots was cleverly hidden by frequent quick cuts to R2-D2 reacting, especially after the editors heard the sound design for R2"s beeps and loved it.

Cardboard cutouts were used for some of the background starfighters in the Rebel hangar bay and for most of the crowd watching the heroes receive their medallions in the final scene.

At one point in the scripting process, the Force was a large crystal or galactic holy grail called the "Kyber crystal". This idea was used in the 1978 Star Wars novel "Splinter of the Mind"s Eye".

Along with Beru Lars and Mon Mothma, Princess Leia is only one of three female characters to star in the original trilogy, while in this movie, she and Beru are the only two female characters to appear, although non-speaking female extras are seen in Mos Eisley.

The enhanced effects used for the Death Star explosions in the 1997 re-releases of this movie and Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983) feature the "Praxis Wave", so named for its first use by Industrial Light & Magic in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) for the explosion of the Klingon moon, Praxis.

According to Harrison Ford (in The Making of "Star Wars" (1977)), Chewbacca the Wookiee is 200 years old. In the recording "The Story of Star Wars" (issued as a book-and-record set, with stills from the movie illustrating the story), narrator Roscoe Lee Browne introduces Chewbacca as "a 200 year old Wookiee". In Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), which takes place about a decade earlier, Chewbacca is correctly identified as being 190 years old.

Luke Skywalker was originally written to be a much older character. He was General Luke Skywalker, a Jedi Master described as being about sixty years old with a gray beard, and mentor to Anakin Starkiller. This version makes Luke"s character much more like that of Obi-Wan Kenobi. This is very similar to how Luke appeared in Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015) and Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017).

When the new Galaxy"s Edge attraction at the Disneyland park in Southern California officially opened for business in 2019, Harrison Ford turned to the cameras and directed a special message in the memory of his former co-star Peter Mayhew. "Peter," he said. "This one"s for you!"

There is only one scene in the entire three-episode arc (IV-V-VI) where all eight of the main characters appear together: the escape from the Death Star. While Darth Vader and Obi-Wan are duelling, Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie, C-3PO, and R2-D2 make their getaway past them into the Millennium Falcon. Although they all do not appear in the same shot, for a brief moment, it was the only time all eight characters were within sight of each other.

Among the first promotional licenses granted was to Marvel Comics, who published a Star Wars comic book series, which ran for one hundred seven issues from 1977 to 1986. The first six issues were an adaption of this movie, which included some deleted scenes from the movie. The adaptation was also published in a tabloid-sized Collector"s Edition format. It was most recently re-issued in a restored collector"s edition from Marvel and Disney with an introduction by Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca). And this was before Disney had acquired Marvel and Lucasfilm outright.

In a commentary track on this movie"s Blu-ray release, George Lucas stated that ships in the Star Wars universe cannot travel in straight lines while in hyperspace due to collisions with celestial objects. Thus, distance is an important factor in how quickly a ship can get from point A to point B. The Millennium Falcon"s superior navigation computer allowed it to travel shorter distances between points, and arrive faster, hence Han Solo"s claim that he made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs. A parsec being a measurement of distance, rather than time. He simply found a shortcut.

Before it became the Tantive IV, the model used for Princess Leia"s diplomatic cruiser had originally been constructed as an early version of the Millennium Falcon. Since it was going to be the primary spaceship seen in the movie, the model was constructed approximately six feet long, and even included such details as tiny footprints on the outside hull. When it was discovered that a similar-looking ship (which even had the similar name of "Eagle") was being featured on a new television program called Space: 1999 (1975), the model was relegated to a less important role in the movie, which led to the Falcon being totally redesigned (and thus, the now-familiar "hamburger" configuration was born). The original model was then given a new hammerhead-shaped cockpit (the original cone-shaped one being transplanted to the new version of the Falcon, along with its round radar dish) and some of its surface details were altered (escape pods protruding from the hull were modified to become laser turrets) to suggest a larger scale spacecraft.

Princess Leia"s consular ship and Darth Vader"s Imperial Star Destroyer are not actually referred to by their proper names, the "Tantive IV" and "Devastator", in the movie. These names did not appear until 1981, when they were used in the National Public Radio radio dramatization of this movie

While George Lucas was filming in London, where additional casting took place, Kenny Baker, performing a musical comedy act with his acting partner Jack Purvis, learned that the movie crew was looking for a small person to fit inside a robot suit and maneuver it. Baker, who was three feet eight inches (1.12 meters and) tall, was cast immediately after meeting George Lucas. He said, "He saw me come in and said "He"ll do" because I was the smallest guy they"d seen up until then." He initially turned down the role three times, hesitant to appear in a movie where his face would not be shown, and hoping to continue the success of his comedy act, which had recently started to be televised.

May 4th has come to be designated as Intergalactic Star Wars Day. The date, May the Fourth, was seen as a play on the movie"s catchphrase, "May the Force be with you". In addition, May is the anniversary month of the release Star Wars movies I(1) through VI(6). The following movies were in fact released on May fourth: Moe Howard passed away on May 4, 1975. Dom DeLuise passed away on May 4, 2009.

The original editor for this movie was John Jympson. Richard Chew was Lucas" first choice of the editor, but budgetary reasons did not allow him to do so. However, a screening of the first rough cut assembled by Jympson turned out absolutely disastrous. The movie had immense pacing issues, was nearly overflowing with unnecessary exposition, and had very little narrative tension. For example, the opening scene of the Empire raiding Princess Leia"s ship was originally intercut with shots of Luke watching the space battle from the surface of Tatooine with his friends, which killed most of the suspense. The rest of the first act was a confusing mess, randomly throwing in concepts like the Force, Darth Vader"s powers, the stolen Death Star plans, and Alderaan before they were properly explained. Lucas fired Jympson and asked his then-wife Marcia (while editing New York, New York (1977)) who, in turn, brought in Chew and Paul Hirsch to finish. They quickly identified the problems, which they fixed by omitting much of the unnecessary explanation, and rearranging entire scenes to better regulate the flow of information. Both men gave the movie a tighter focus, an improved story structure, and a much-needed faster pace, which paid off when they received an Academy Award for their work.

According to Mark Hamill, because of a record heatwave in England during filming, most of the pilots wore only the top-half of their costume. They were "...attacking the Death Star wearing shorts."

In the interview clips in the When Star Wars Ruled the World (2004) special, Mark Hamill explained that the concept behind the Force is, essentially, "Religion"s Greatest Hits".

The main airlock door on the Tantive IV was actually the same prop (painted white) as the trash compactor hatch from the Death Star. Because the opening scenes were actually shot last, the Tantive IV set wasn"t constructed until the end of production, by which time, the budget had become so limited, that a lot of things had to be re-used from previous sets, which had been demolished.

Two of the 3-D computer graphics scenes (the exterior of the Death Star shown during the mission briefing and the "trench" shown on the rebel fighter tactical displays) were created on a Data General PDP-11/45 microcomputer with a Vector General VG3D terminal. The PDP-11/45 would render one frame of the animation using a program written in the GRASS programming language, then display the image on the terminal, then trigger a movie camera to photograph the image on a single frame of film. This process was repeated with slightly different rotation, scaling, and perspective calculations, resulting in smooth animations. Each of the trench images required two minutes to render. The Death Star animation was shown on a rear-projection screen during the filming of the briefing scene. The original animations were unfortunately lost in time, forcing the makers of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) to re-create them frame by frame.

The Star Wars films were never released in China until 30 years later. Because of this, every Star Wars film since the Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015) has made less and less money in the country since the Chinese don"t have any nostalgia towards this film or any other star piece of Star Wars media.

Adjusted for inflation (2016), this movie had a budget of almost $44 million. To put that in perspective, Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015) had an estimated budget of $245 million.

The briefing of the pilots and the final dogfights at the Death Star were inspired by many World War II movies, including Flying Tigers (1942), Flying Leathernecks (1951), and The Battle of Britain (1969), amongst others.

CASTLE THUNDER: Heard various times in the movie whenever laser bolts or other various weapons are fired. Its most well-known use in the movie is when the Death Star blows up.

Wuher, the bartender from the Mos Eisley cantina, has a strong aversion to droids (which is hinted in the "We don"t serve their kind here" scene). In the book "From a Certain Point of View", which is set in the official canon, it is explained that Wuher lost his parents at the hands of battle droids during the Clone Wars, which left him traumatized. On the other hand, he had a great respect for the Jedi, as they saved him from a battalion of battle droids.

This movie was re-released theatrically in the U.S. on July 21, 1978 (although this was more of an extended first run, as some theaters had never stopped showing the movie since its original release), August 15, 1979 (for three weeks only, with a preview of Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)), April 10, 1981 (for two weeks only, now subtitled as "Episode IV: A New Hope"), and August 13, 1982 (for three weeks only, with a preview for Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983)). It was also shown on a triple-bill with Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983) for a single performance in nine U.S. cities on March 28, 1985.

The first Star Wars merchandise Mark Hamill ever saw was the comic book by Marvel, which was released two months before the movie. He bought all 14 copies from the newsstand and gave all of them to his friends. Years later, he bought one copy for himself at an inflated price.

Although the Anchorhead scenes featuring Anthony Forrest as Fixer and Koo Stark as Cammie were deleted, Forrest still appears in the finished movie. He played the Stormtrooper who stops Luke and Obi-Wan in Mos Eisley, and is then deluded by Obi-Wan"s use of the Force.

The first treatment of the movie was originally titled "The Journal of the Whills". It centered around a Jedi-bendu by the name of Mace Windu (who would become the Mace Windu character in the prequel trilogy) and his apprentice, C.2. Thorpe. George Lucas brought the thing to his agent, Jeff Berg, who was quickly confused by the massive amounts of jargon used in the treatment, and recommended he start simpler.

The scene where Han says the Millennium Falcon made the Kessel Run in 12 parsecs is said to be a factual error because a "parsec" is a unit of distance, not time. The scene was originally shown to be Han lying and have Luke be gullible. However in Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) it is revealed this isn"t a mistake. While doing the Kessel Run, Lando says "You can"t do the Kessel Run in under 20 parsecs," meaning the shortest hyperspace route to a nearby system is 20 parsecs. However, because L3 has a large map of the galaxy in her database, they find a shorter route to a planet which is close to 12 parsecs.

The piece of equipment used to fire the Death Star"s weapon is actually a Grass Valley Group 1600-7K television production switcher. Also known in certain countries as a vision mixing desk, which would also do various mixing between video cameras in a television studio or outside broadcast environment. The item used to fire the Death Star is a fader that would fade between cameras, or into and or out from black.

A total of thirty sets consisting of planets, starships, caves, control rooms, cantinas, and the Death Star corridors were created. All nine soundstages at Elstree Studios were used to accommodate them.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), which is a prequel to this movie, details how the Rebel Alliance stole the Death Star plans, and reveals how Darth Vader knew the Death Star plans were aboard Tantive IV.

Tatooine is similar to Arrakis from Frank Herbert"s Dune series. Arrakis is the only known source of a longevity spice called Melange. References to "spice", various illegal stimulant drugs, occur throughout the last three movies of the Star Wars saga. In the original movie, Han Solo is a spice smuggler who has been through the spice mines of Kessel. In the conversation at Obi-Wan Kenobi"s hut, between Obi-Wan and Luke, Luke expresses a belief that his father was a navigator on a spice freighter. Other similarities include those between Princess Leia and Princess Alia, and between Jedi mind tricks and "The Voice", a controlling ability used by Bene Gesserit. In passing, Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru are "moisture farmers". In Dune, dew collectors are used by Fremen to "provide a small but reliable source of water." Herbert reported that "David Lynch, (director of Dune (1984)) had trouble with the fact that Star Wars used up so much of Dune." The pair found "sixteen points of identity" and they calculated that, "the odds against coincidence produced a number larger than the number of stars in the universe."

If you look closely you can see Darth Vader"s eyes (even though you"re not supposed to) in a couple scenes in this movie, most notably the Death Star scene. They rectified this by making the tint of his eye hole visors in his mask darker in Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983).

While it is well known that Japanese films (and foreign language films in general) influenced Star Wars, George Lucas drew upon these films in one usual way. While studying Japanese films at USC, Lucas felt that not knowing Japanese history and customs made them more interesting because the filmmakers didn"t feel the need to explain everything. Lucas liked the idea of creating a movie with a truly "alien" culture where one could understand the broad strokes of the narrative without having to know exactly what was going on.

Audio of Alec Guinness from this movie was excised and edited for use in Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015); the line "Come here, my little friend. Don"t be afraid." was trimmed down so that Obi-Wan Kenobi was uttering "Rey?"

The first movie in the franchise to be given the "U" rating in the United Kingdom. Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983) were also rated "U". But Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) was the last movie in the franchise to be given the "U" rating in the U.K., and was later given the PG rating when it was released on DVD. Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) was also rated PG. Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005) and Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015) were given the "12A" rating.

In 2013, anthologized 2014, the original 1973 draft of "The Star Wars", with the sixty-year-old General Luke Skywalker and his young pupil the Starkiller, was adapted to comic book form by Jonathan Rinzler, Mike Mayhew, and Nick Runge, published by Dark Horse.

Dan O"Bannon and John C. Wash animated the Death Star schematics seen on the computer screen as R2-D2 searches the Death Star"s computer memory. They were influenced by similar sequences they produced for Dark Star (1974).

A lot of Star Wars fans have either joked or theorized that the Sand People attacking Luke was revenge for the events of Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002) when his father Anakin killed a tribe of them for kidnapping and torturing his mother (Luke"s grandmother) Shmi to death.

The opening "crawl" was an optical effect used by Cecil B. DeMille in two of his films produced forty years previous to the premier of Star Wars. The Plainsman (1936) used crawling text for it"s opening title, cast list, and other credits using the same style as the Star Wars opening crawl. The Plainsmen used the crawl for the opening credits, but the subsequent text narrative for the story did not use the crawl.

There was a diecast toy made of the Imperial Star Cruiser that was advertised in EERIE Magazine. This was the only version of that vessel to be created as a toy. To accommodate the action figures, the Imperial Troop Transport was created as a replacement for the Imperial Cruiser and the Star Destroyer. The Darth Vader"s Star Destroyer playset was the only version of the Star Destroyer Kenner ever issued.

This movie, by following the franchise in chronological order, marks the second time C-3PO stays with the Lars, the first time being in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002). But C-3PO is gold instead of gray, and does not remember Owen, due to his memory being wiped at the end of Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005).

During the time George Lucas looked at shooting this in the UK, some film studio space at Pinewood Studios was taken up by the Gerry Anderson ITC TV series Space: 1999 (1975). Some production designs for the series meant that some elements for "Star Wars" were revised, and likely resulted in some informal mutual creative and technical inspiration between both productions.

Before the film was released in the UK, it was described as a new science fiction film featuring Alec Guinness and "The Green Cross Code Man" David Prowse. At the time, in a piece of history that would repeat itself, Prowse was playing a good character in a series of Road Safety adverts aimed at children to help them safely cross the road. In later Green Cross adverts, his Bristol accent was dubbed over, as in Star Wars. In something else, that may or may not have been a deliberate coincidence, as the same crews worked on both feature films and advertising, in the UK, the Green Cross costume design looks similar to a green version of Darth Vader"s cape, and in one Green Cross advert, he has a robot sidekick that looks like an R2-D2 alternate design. The Green Cross Code adverts (aka Public Information Films) can be found online in the usual video uploading websites.

Alexander Courage orchestrated the score. Courage was best known for scoring another space adventure series, Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987). He also composed and orchestrated the score of Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987). (Even though the former occupation was contributed to John Williams).

A number of B-grade sci-fi movies were released within a year of Star Wars, hoping to cash in on the coattails of the mega-hit (Ironic as Star Wars itself was based on B-grade serials). The CIA joined in with this, creating a fake production company and crew in order to enter Iran during the hostage crisis and rescue a number of embassy employees who had avoided being taken hostage by revolutionaries. They were smuggled out while pretending to be members of the film scouting crew. The fake sci-fi adventure film became the focus of a major Hollywood movie which shared the name of the fake film, entitled Argo (2012).

Darth Vader tells the Imperial council to not get too overconfident in the Death Star, stating "the ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force." Sure enough, it"s the Force that allows Luke to make the one-in-a-million shot that destroys the battle station.

Mark Hamill was twenty-five when he played a nineteen-year-old Luke Skywalker. By the time Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983), set four years after this movie, came to filming, Hamill was thirty-one. When he returned to play the role of the fifty-three-year-old Luke for Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015), he was sixty-three.

Inspired by pirate films and romantic films of the 1940s, George Lucas was infatuated with the romantic side of fighting, and wanted to create an "elegant weapon, from a more civilized age." On the Star Wars Youtube page, Lucas explains the reasoning behind the weapon"s creation. "There was chivalry, and honor, that sort of thing," Lucas said. "In developing a group of peacekeepers I needed a weapon that was appropriate... It was more a symbol of a simpler time, of a time before the Empire had taken over a time when honor ruled. So it was more a symbol than it was an actual weapon in the movie." Wanting to stick with his original idea of having the Jedi fight with swords, Lucas created lightsabers to give the weapons a futuristic, technological edge, while making Jedi defensive, rather than offensive fighters.

The music played in the cantina scene is a direct homage to the swing music of the 1930s and 40s, which was the era that the space serials which inspired Lucas to create Star Wars came from.

In the 2007 book "Death Star" by Michael Reaves and Steve Perry, which is now in the non-canon Star Wars Legends continuity, it is revealed that the stormtrooper who yells "Open the blast door!" after Han and Chewie escape it as it was closing, is named Lt. Commander Nova Stihl. He was a proud stormtrooper who enjoyed his job until the Empire destroyed Alderaan, as they used a weapon in their arsenal, not against actual enemies, but against a planet populated by innocent people. In that scene, he was actually pretending that he couldn"t open that blast door back up in order to allow Han and Chewie a chance to get away. Also, he, and a number of others introduced in the book, made a plan to get away from the doomed Death Star and join the Rebellion.

Sir Alec Guinness and Peter Cushing appeared in productions of Hamlet. One of Guinness" first roles, at the age of nineteen, was playing Osric in Sir John Gielgud"s production in 1933, which is considered to be one of the best theatrical productions of the twentieth century. Cushing played the same part in Sir Laurence Olivier"s movie version of Hamlet (1948), which marked his first collaboration with future Star Wars cast member Sir Christopher Lee.

In the comic book "Star Wars Tales 15 - Sandstorm" by Dark Horse Comics, ten-year-old Luke runs away from home when Uncle Owen refuses to tell Luke about his father Anakin. In the desert, Luke suffering from dust fever meets seven-year-old Anakin in a vision, and they learn they have both share the same ambitions of leaving Tatooine and becoming pilots, and in the vision, Luke is attacked by a Krayt Dragon, and is found by Owen.

When R2-D2 is seen getting in to the escape pod and C-3PO is running after him, in the distance can vaguely be made out old dial pilot and co-pilot control panels from a B-52-like cockpit. This is where the original Millennium Falcon concept was exchanged for Leia"s family"s Corvette spaceship. The length of the corridor was intended to be the centerline body of the ship only to in concept become an access corridor to the escape pods from a much larger ship.

Angus MacInnes (Gold Leader) found his part very frustrating to play. Before filming his cockpit scenes, George Lucas insisted that he should say his lines out of sequence. MacInnes had difficulties with that, because even though he knew his lines perfectly well, he needed someone to cue him in order to properly remember them. When the shooting of his scenes began, he became very nervous and started to sweat heavily. All he wanted was to get over it, no matter what. The problem was later solved by placing pieces of the script on several places of the cockpit, and MacInnes read his lines off them. Because of that, he felt that there was no performance at all, but he was glad that he made it through his scenes.

Around 40 years later, by 2019, after various corporate takeovers, The Walt Disney Company would continue and expand the Star Wars story-universe, and own Lucasfilm, 20th Century Fox, Marvel (which had published the original tie-in comics), and The Muppets, (which spoofed elements of Star Wars, and in the early 1980s would do a Mark Hamill/Star Wars cross over version of the Disney song "When You Wish Upon a Star" on The Muppet Show: The Stars of Star Wars (1980), itself before Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) was completed, in a curious corporate foreshadowing). This corporate structure raises the issue that Princess Leia is now retro-fitted as actually a "Disney Princess".

While others say the famous line "May the Force be with you," Obi-Wan Kenobi does not. The closest he gets is telling Luke, "The Force will be with you, always." (He also says "Luke, use the Force!" And just "use the Force!") Of course when the studio was marketing the movie in 1977 they released all sorts of pins, T-shirts and other items that said "May the Force be With You", which might have added to the confusion. Also Solo does say "May the Force be With you" to Luke before the Death Star ambush. But it is correct that Obi-Wan never actually says that line. It should also be noted that A New Hope is the only chapter which uses that line; the others do not. It did not become catch phrase for the whole franchise; just the first film.

In the final battle scene, when Gold Leader checks in as standing by, in the background are two more Y-wing snub fighters. The plan to blow-up the Death Star was out of thirty or so X-wing and Y-wing fighters, Gold squadron"s Gold Leader would break-off with two covering wingmen and make his way to the exhaust port and fire his proton torpedo at the opening while the other two Y-wings took enemy fire from behind. Luke Skywalker"s (Red Five"s) role was to be under the command of Red Leader, and to target surface towers and power cores.

The only movie of the original trilogy where Princess Leia wears just one outfit during almost the whole movie (she wore a different outfit briefly in the ceremony scene at the end). In Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983), Leia changes into several outfits.

The background sound effects in Obi-Wan"s house near the 33:00 mark are the same as used as computer sounds in several episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series (1966) including Star Trek: The Original Series: All Our Yesterdays (1969), among others.

An early rough cut of the film had the rebel ships attack on the Death Star replaced with scenes from the classic war movie The Dam Busters (1955). This was because the special effects model-work used in the final film was still being filmed in California and the editors needed something similar to cut into the movie to show the executives at 20th Century Fox how the film was coming along. In fact the model work was was still being filmed after all the live action filming had been completed.

After the release of the first movie, Kermit Eller and Duwayne Dunham made several public appearances as Darth Vader and Boba Fett, respectively. This was the introduction of the latter character, even before The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978).

Alan Dean Foster ghostwrote a novelization of the movie, based on an early draft of the screenplay, with some lines from the script, but in in the actual movie, reinstated in the book. The novelization was published in November 1976, six months before the movie"s release, and therefore was among the earliest public mentions of Star Wars.

Perhaps Declan Mulholland"s most famous role will be one that never was. Declan was the original Jabba the Hutt stand-in for the movie Star Wars. The scene was to have a "stop-motion" character overlay him, but budget constraints forced George Lucas to cut the scene altogether. Beginning in 1997, this scene has been re-inserted into the film. However, you won"t be able to see Declan, Mulholland since Lucasfilm had the funds to complete the production, inserting a Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983) style Jabba the Hutt, over his character, once again. Avery brief clip of Mulholland"s footage was shown in From "Star Wars" to "Jedi": The Making of a Saga (1983), a TV special aired to promote Return of the Jedi.

Renowned film commentator Mark Cousins outlines the basic plot of "Star Wars" in his "The Story of Film" book (published 2020) and concludes the paragraph: "This is the most absurd of any detailed so far in this book."

When Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi meet on the Death Star, the former says when they last met he was the learner. Darth Vader is obviously referring to Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005) with their last encounter on Mustafar where Obi-Wan Kenobi defeated Darth Vader, which caused him to wear his famous black armor, as well as the fact he was once Obi-Wan Kenobi"s apprentice.

After the Millennium Falcon is captured by the Death Star, Darth Vader sends a scanning crew aboard to search for any passengers, and says "I sense something, a presence I haven"t felt since...", referring to his former master Obi-Wan Kenobi. At the beginning of Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005) (which reverses this movie"s story) Anakin says "I sense Count Dooku", as he and Obi-Wan land on General Grievous" ship to rescue Chancellor Palpatine.

David Prowse was heard doing the voice of Vader in the rough cut of Star Wars, as well as the outtakes and bloopers. It gives the scenes a dramatically different flavor.

Perry King screentested for the role of Han Solo. Though he lost the part to Harrison Ford for the movie, he got to play Solo in the National Public Radio adaptations of the original "Star Wars" trilogy.

The first sequel to Star Wars was not Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980); technically it was The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978), aired in 1978. Although the events of this TV special are not considered canonical in the series.

The events of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) run immediately into the events of "A New Hope". Accordingly, both could now be watched back to back as a 4 hour movie, with Rogue One being in effect a deleted scenes sequence, not unlike the original deleted scenes from the original 1977 version of "Star Wars".

When Luke watches the twin suns set before discovering R2-D2 escaped the farm is obviously closer to the suns than Jabba"s Palace as shown in Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983). This suggests that Luke"s home is either several miles south or north of Jabba"s palace.

William Katt auditioned for the role of Luke Skywalker. Instead he was cast for Tommy Ross, the male lead in Carrie (1976), as part of a joint audition for Carrie (1976) and Star Wars, held by Brian De Palma and George Lucas. That means that Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill were trying out for the Tommy Ross and Billy Nolan roles in Carrie (1976); in addition to their roles in Star Wars. Sissy Spacek was almost cast as Princess Leia before they decided on giving her the Carrie role. Spacek"s biggest competition for the Leia role included Cindy Williams, Jodie Foster, and of course Carrie Fisher, who landed the role.

The only film where Leia interacts with Vader. While they do share scenes in Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980), they don"t speak to each other. In contrast Luke does not interact with Vader until the next two films.

The 2019 release of this film contains minor but noticeable changes, such as adding alternate footage in the scene with Greedo, and eliminating some visual errors. However, they were already added in 2012. At the time, it was planned to release all previous Star Wars films in 3D (which was done with Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) that year). Some scenes were slightly altered in order to make them look better in that format. Later in 2012, Lucasfilm was sold to Disney, and plans to release the remaining five Star Wars films in 3D were scrapped.

During production, as most of the American cast was unknown at the time, the film was referred to in the UK as a new sci-fi starring Alec Guinness and the "Green Cross Code" man. The latter was referring to David Prowse, who was known at the time for playing the character in some road safety television adverts for children. Coincidentally, just like in this film, his voice was dubbed by another actor.

Earlier versions of the script contained the name Montross, which was given to different characters as the script progressed. In the rough draft from 1974, Montross was an aide of General Skywalker. A character named Montross Holdaack, who appeared in the 1975 draft