50 Interesting Facts about Star Wars – Part 2

The original lightsaber prop used in Star Wars by Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker is inside the International Space Station and was flown by STS-120 in August 2007.

27. The holograph of Sheev Palpatine in The Empire Strikes back was played by a woman with chimpanzee eyes superimposed on her face.

28. The Star Wars character Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader meets six of the nine diagnostic criteria for borderline personality disorder (BPD), one more than necessary for a diagnosis.

29. According to the script, the chance cube that Watto rolled with Qui-Gon was fixed to land on red. That's why he was so mad when Qui-Gon tampered with it to land on blue.

30. The face of Yoda in 'The Empire Strikes Back' was based on the face of Albert Einstein and to a lesser extent, the face of E.T.

The inspiration for Chewbacca was George Lucas' Alaskan Malamute who had a habit of riding in the passenger seat as Lucas drove. The dog's name was Indiana and would go on to inspire another famous character. Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones Jr.

32. Boba Fett had hair braids on his armor, and they were braided Wookie scalps.

33. The lettering on Darth Vader's chest plate is in Hebrew. It reads "His deeds will not be forgiven until he merits. (triumphs)."

34. Jar Jar Binks was based on Goofy, the Disney cartoon character and Michael Jackson once wanted to play Jar Jar using prosthetics.

35. The language of Jabba the Hutt "Huttese" is based on Quechua - The Incan language still spoken in parts of South America.

In the Return of the Jedi, during the shot in which Salacious Crumb (the small, annoying, rat-like thing that sits with Jabba in his palace) is chewing off C-3PO's eye, Anthony Daniels had a panic attack while in the C-3PO suit. While filming, he didn't actually say his lines (all of his lines were dubbed in post-production anyway), but repeated "Get me up. Get me up." over and over. This is the take used in the final cut.

37. Some of the audio effects for the coughing General Grievous were taken from George Lucas himself, who had had bronchitis at the time of principal photography.

38. Admiral Ackbar was voted by students to be the Ole Miss Rebel's mascot. Lucasfilm declined to allow the characters to use for the role stating he would have trouble finding time to attend games as he was leading the Rebel Alliance Fleet on a critical mission so it will be difficult for him to show up for the games.

39. The iconic font for "Star Wars" was derived from Helvetica Black because designer Suzy Rice thought that it was the most Fascist typeface she could think of.

40. Princess Leia's iconic metal bikini was inspired by Fisher's complaints that the loose-fitting outfits she wore in Star Wars concealed her feminine physique.

The uniform worn by General Hux (Domhnall Gleeson) is modeled after the uniforms worn by Nazis mixed with some naval influences.

42. Admiral Ackbar from Star Wars: Return of the Jedi was not played by an actor, but was in fact a puppet.

43. Poe Dameron (played by Oscar Isaac) is named after J.J. Abrams' former personal assistant, Morgan Dameron, and her daughter's stuffed polar bear named Poe. Morgan Dameron herself appears as Commodore Meta.

44. In the Revenge of the Sith, the images of the volcanic eruption on Mustafar is real footage of Mt. Etna in Italy, which was erupting at the time of production.

45. Yoda from "The Empire Strikes Back" was almost played by a monkey, but was decided against because the monkey kept pulling off the mask.

In the Revenge of the Sith, in the opening sequence when the second Separatist ship is destroyed, a piece of debris flies into the clone Star Destroyer that shot it. That piece of debris is a kitchen sink. It was put in there by Industrial Light & Magic as a joke from someone saying, "We're throwing everything in the sequence, including the kitchen sink."

47. Boba Fett's armor was originally all white and the character was derivative from the original idea of Darth Vader being a Bounty Hunter and Lucas was also kicking around the idea of revealing that Vader and Fett were actually brothers in one of the prequels.

48. Jabba the Hutt is a hermaphrodite.

49. C-3PO always had a silver leg.

50. Mace Windu's lightsaber had "Bad motherf*ker" inscribed on the hilt.