A journey deeper into ‘Star Wars’

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By Lisa Goudy

‘May the Force be with you.’

While it’s yet to be seen if the new ‘Star Wars’ movie, ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ will live up to all of the hype it’s been getting, it’s certainly one of the most talked about cinema events of the year.

Here are a few fun facts about ‘Star Wars’ that you might not know:

1. Non-English languages for names – George Lucas is known for using non-English languages for names. For instance, Darth Vader’s name comes the Dutch word for ‘father’ and Yoda’s name comes from the Sanskrit word for ‘warrior.’ John Williams also used a 13^th century Welsh manuscript for the chanting in the composition, ‘Duel of the Fates.’ He translated the following into Sanskrit: “Under the tongue root a fight most dread, and another raging, behind the head.”

2. A shoe and a potato are asteroids – Any ‘Star Wars’ fans are familiar with the asteroid sequence in ‘The Empire Strikes Back.’ It has also generated a number of special effects stories. A number of crewmembers stated one of the asteroids is a shoe and another is a potato.

3. Han Solo could’ve been a green monster – A number of things changed in pre-production of ‘Star Wars: A New Hope’ and the character of Han Solo was one of them. He was originally imagined to be a green-skinned monster with a set of gills. Thank you, George Lucas and team, for changing your mind. Harrison Ford’s Han Solo is perfect the way he is.

4. ‘I have a bad feeling about this.’ – There are seriously a lot of bad things happening in the galaxy where ‘Star Wars’ takes place and this line is the saga’s most repeated line. Originally uttered by Luke Skywalker in ‘Episode IV’ other characters who said it include Han Solo in ‘Episode IV’, Princess Leia in ‘Episode V,’ C3-PO in ‘Episode VI,’ Obi-Wan Kenobi in ‘Episode I’ and ‘Episode III’ and Anakin Skywalker in ‘Episode II.’ We can only wonder if these bad feelings will continue in ‘Episode VII.’

5. Ewoks take over the Wookies – In ‘Return of the Jedi,’ an army of Wookies were originally supposed to help out on Endor. However, Lucas decided to use a smaller furry animal, which became the Ewok. Funny enough, though, the word ‘Ewok’ is never mentioned in the movie. 

*** This article also appeared in the Dec. 16, 2015 edition of the Moose Jaw Times-Herald's weekly publication, UnCut.