Star Wars: 10 Secrets Of The Stormtrooper You Didn't Know

Sticking with the weapons used by the Empire's go-to soldiers, it turns out that the plan wasn't always to have stormtroopers chase our heroes around the galaxy with blasters as their primary fighting tool.

Many moons ago, the great Ralph McQuarrie created some utterly stunning concept art based on George Lucas' early drafts of the first Star Wars that was ultimately used to help convince 20th Century Fox to allow the director to create his barmy galaxy far, far away adventure.

And among these gorgeous creations was actually an early shot of some stormtroopers seemingly getting ready to clash with the protagonists, with these soldiers surprisingly being armed with lightsabers and shields rather than the blasters they'd eventually carry in the franchise.

That idea was scrapped in the end, of course, with lightsabers generally only being used by Jedi, Sith, and other Force-sensitive souls in the series in the time that followed its arrival in theatres in 1977.

But it's still interesting to imagine how different the franchise could have been had the original plan of laser sword-swinging troopers made its way onto the screen.

They wouldn't have to worry as much about hitting the target from long range, at least.

And speaking of that...