8 Star Wars Prequel Moments George Lucas Planned Way Back In 1977

2. The Imperial Army Was Built In Secret

"The Emperor has some strong forces rally behind him ... in terms of the army and the Imperial forces that he'd been building up secretly." - Leia Organa

It was a long-standing notion from the original expansion that the future Emperor had been building a large army in secret ready for the rise of the Empire. The Republic couldn't have had an army because it was meant to be protected by the Jedi, but the Empire it became does, so a secret one is simple but effective. However, the execution of this idea in the films became bogged down by another.

Clones had been trying to find their way into Star Wars since the very beginning. A throwaway reference to the Clone Wars was one of the fans' few hints to the pre-Empire world, while Boba Fett was originally envisioned as part of a run of genetically produced super-soldiers. They finally got their on-screen debut in Attack of the Clones, where this classic sci-fi trope was mixed with the secret army.