10 Mind-Blowing Facts You Didn't Know About Star Wars: The Clone Wars

This is a fact which shows the power and passion of Star Wars' legion (sorry) of fans.

In 1997, in South Carolina, Albin Johnson and Tom Crews founded the 501st Legion, a charitable organisation that makes realistic costumes from the original trilogy. Johnson and Crews started by making Stormtrooper costumes, and styled themselves the 501st Legion, or "Vader's Fist." The name was coined to honour both the films and the real life heroes of World War II.

Their popularity grew at such a rate that even George Lucas joined them at a charity event and soon sub-divisions of the organisation were set up all over America. Eventually, they became canon in Timothy Zahn's novel "Survivor's Quest", and the clone unit subsequently appeared in Revenge of the Sith with Darth Vader as he sacks the Jedi Temple. Although not named in the film itself, the battalion of clones was revealed to be the 501st thanks to Lucasfilm's merchandising.

Of course, all this eventually led to the 501st Legion becoming a part of The Clone Wars, serving under Anakin and his Padawan, Ahsoka. All of this makes for a very sweet and respectable way of honouring the many fans of Star Wars, but perhaps the best of the 501st is that it gave us its superior, Captain Rex, who remains one of the show's most important and popular figures.