20 Lesser Known Facts Surrounding The Making Of Star Wars

14. From Episode IV To Episode III

Wookiees were one of George Lucas' obsessions from the very beginning. He always wanted to show their home planet of Kashyyyk and have these creatures be a big part of the Star Wars universe. In the end, though, we ended up with only Chewbacca in the Original Trilogy, and a smaller battle on Kashyyyk in Episode III, which is currently the last movie to be produced in the Star Wars saga. But this battle in Episode III actually dates back to the earliest screenplays of Episode IV. Originally, Lucas wanted to have Wookiees help out Rebels in overtaking an Imperial Bunker. Sound familiar? The idea was later utilised with Ewoks in Return of the Jedi instead. George also had the planet of Utapau featuring in early drafts of A New Hope. Utapau finally gets to appear in the same movie that the Wookiee battle appears in, though: Episode III. So it seems that anything George Lucas could not work into his first Star Wars movie actually got recycled into the final installment. How's that for coming full circle, then?

13. Destination: Mos Espa, Tatooine

There's not much to see on the lonely planet of Tatooine and as Luke Skywalker once said: "If there's a bright center to the universe, you're on the planet that it's farthest from." Shot in Tunisia, the country still clings to the remnants of the set of Mos Espa, the home of Anakin Skywalker in The Phantom Menace, and also features the Lars Homestead where Luke grew up. You can visit both to feel like you are living and breathing as both young Anakin and Luke Skywalker did. For the die-hard fans that want to venture away from their hotel, you can actually stay overnight at Hotel Sidi Driss, which actually took the interior of the Lars Homestead set and made it into a hotel. Or, if you'd rather not spend that kind of money but still want to feel like you live in the Star Wars universe, you can wait a few years for when Disney will hopefully build an entire theme park devoted to Star Wars and only Star Wars. Rumor has it that's actually in the works.