10 Lies About Star Wars You Probably Believe
Sexual assumptions, apparent pieces of iconic improv and many more Star Wars lies you believe...
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00:00From iconic, spur-of-the-moment one-liners being anything but that,
00:03to certain supposed character inspirations being far from the actual truth,
00:08it's time to uncover just how valid these Star Wars facts actually are.
00:12I'm Gareth from WhatCulture Star Wars and here are 10 Lies About Star Wars You Probably Believe.
00:1910. Jedi Knights Are Celibate
00:22Largely framed as monk-like figures for the most part, it's not hard to see why
00:26most Star Wars fans would assume the galaxy's supposed forces of good were very much sworn
00:31to celibacy from the second they decided to follow the path of the Jedi. However,
00:35as George Lucas would later reveal to the BBC around the time of Attack of the Clones,
00:39it turns out that the likes of Anakin Skywalker bumping uglies with another
00:42isn't as off-limits as you initially expected. As Lucas put it, Jedi Knights aren't celibate.
00:48The thing that is forbidden is attachments and possessive relationships.
00:52So in other words, settling down to start a family with someone you're very much in love
00:56with? That's a big no-no. Feeling that the force is particularly strong with someone else for one
01:01night only, no strings attached, however? That's apparently all good according to the Jedi Order's
01:06questionable rulebook. 9. Lando Calrissian
01:10Was Designed Purely As A Han Solo Replacement Not for the last time on this collection of
01:15supposed Star Wars truths, I direct you to an intriguing Twitter thread created by Lucasfilm
01:20creative art manager Phil Szostak back in August 2019. Going out of his way to reveal whether a
01:26number of intergalactic myths were right on the money or drastically far from the truth,
01:30one of the most notable facts Szostak targeted with a social media proton torpedo came in the
01:35form of the truth behind why Lando Calrissian came into being in the first place. According
01:40to a popular urban legend, Billy Dee Williams' character was only unleashed into this galaxy
01:45far, far away as a way of replacing Han Solo, with Harrison Ford not being nailed on to return
01:50for either The Empire Strikes Back or Return of the Jedi before the sequels were written.
01:54Yet after happily re-signing to appear in Episode V and eventually Episode VI,
01:58the fact Lando wasn't swiftly brushed to one side all but confirmed that, while still possibly being
02:03a fallback should Ford's character be permanently frozen in carbonite, the smuggler was much more
02:08than a simple solo substitute. 8. Ralph McQuarrie's Artwork
02:13Convinced 20th Century Fox On Star Wars Sticking with Lucasfilm creative art manager
02:19Phil Szostak's intriguing Twitter revelations now, and to what many felt was a supposed deal-breaker
02:24when it came to 20th Century Fox giving this galaxy far, far away the all-important green light.
02:29According to some corners of the old interweb, prolific Star Wars concept artist Ralph McQuarrie
02:34was the one responsible for blowing the minds of the various directors on the Fox board,
02:39to the point of simply having to pump money into this game-changing endeavour.
02:43But as Szostak would reveal in said thread, despite being handed various pieces of compelling
02:47artwork in an attempt to pitch and sell this sprawling tale to the studio,
02:51this still wasn't enough to entirely convince Fox to commit to the project. In the end,
02:56it was actually George Lucas' relationship with Fox executive Alan Ladd Jr. which helped seal
03:01the deal for the incoming flick, with it being noted in the making of Star Wars book that Ladd's
03:05backing was the key. 7. Mark Hamill Said
03:09Carrie After Destroying The Death Star Never want to muffle his freakishly talented
03:14voice should the opportunity arise to sprinkle some additional Star Wars details onto his Twitter
03:19feed, Mark Hamill was at it again back in 2019, when he was confronted with an age-old myth about
03:24what actually tumbled out of Luke Skywalker's mouth, upon greeting his pals post-Death Star
03:29destruction in A New Hope. To many, it's clear that the rebel hero was accidentally blurting
03:34out the real-life name of his co-star Carrie Fisher, when gleefully greeted by Leia Organa
03:39and Han Solo in the hangar. But Hamill has consistently denied this to be the case,
03:47with his most recent debunking of the theory coming on his Twitter account in a reply to a
03:52curious fan. As the actor behind the iconic Jedi Master put it,
03:55No matter how often this is debunked, it still comes back.
03:59The entire scene was dubbed, I said there she, as in there she is, when I saw her.
04:04George would have never allowed me to say Carrie even if I wanted to as a joke,
04:08which I didn't. It makes no sense. While some Star Wars moments are most
04:12definitely open for interpretation, Hamill himself draws the line at a piece of dialogue
04:16that he feels just makes no sense in the grand scheme of things.
04:216. Chewbacca's Name Had Russian Origins
04:24It's been well-documented how a number of intriguing sources reused as inspiration for
04:29the fiery, wookie sidekick by the name of Chewbacca. Away from George Lucas' dog,
04:33Indiana, giving the director the initial idea for a big furry side character in Star Wars,
04:38though, another widely-circulated rumour isn't actually as valid as his canine origins.
04:43Again uncovered during Phil Solstack's Twitter thread of force-sensitive goodness,
04:47the idea of Chewbacca's name deriving from the Russian words шудов,
04:50шея и собака, meaning monster and dog, respectively,
04:55was thoroughly dissected by the Lucasfilm Creative Arts manager.
04:58As Solstack noted, Lucas himself went on record in the making of Star Wars books to admit that
05:03the likes of Chewbacca and other wookie names were created by simply changing words around,
05:08as you do, with there being zero mention of the aforementioned Russian inspirations.
05:12On top of this, the site that originated this particular myth did not come equipped with a
05:17source for said information either, again suggesting that its validity is questionable
05:21at best. Much like my terrible Russian pronunciations.
05:265. George Lucas Had 9-12 Movies Mapped Out From The Start
05:30The creator of Skywalkers and Solos alike has often been cited for having a whopping
05:359-12 Star Wars features bubbling over in his mind from the very beginning.
05:39But the Game Changer himself has gone on record to reveal that this wasn't actually entirely the case,
05:44regardless of Mark Hamill once noting how the creator told him it was four trilogies during
05:48the filming of that first cinematic trip into space. While it would undoubtedly take on a life
05:53of its own in the decades that would follow A New Hope, George Lucas once told MTV that
05:58this was never planned as a nine-episode work. Going further, the father of Star Wars would add,
06:03The media pounced when I made an offhand comment. It might be fun to come back
06:06when everyone's 80 and do another one of these, but I never had any intention of doing that.
06:11Despite eventually committing to crafting some sequel trilogy treatments later down the road,
06:16though, Disney opted to go down their own route for episode seven onwards,
06:19and steered mostly clear of Lucas' intriguing, Leia-led new trilogy concept.
06:244. The Millennium Falcon was Inspired by a Hamburger
06:29Han Solo and Chewbacca's Millennium Falcon has long come equipped with a rather bizarre
06:33origin story of sorts, with George Lucas himself once noting how he cited a hamburger as an early
06:39design idea for the ship. However, as Phil Sostak would again unpack in his compelling
06:43Twitter mission to uncover the truth behind many of Star Wars' often-debated facts,
06:48this half-bitten burger with an olive on the side concept may not have actually been the
06:52source of inspiration for the finished article. As Falcon designer Joe Johnston would note later
06:57down the road, Lucas may have said that it could have the essence of a flying saucer,
07:01and that the designer landed on the disc-shaped hull after a series of very rough sketches.
07:06And adding further weight to the claims of the visual of a hamburger with an olive on
07:10the side providing the foundations for this eventual pop culture icon being all
07:14false, Johnston would also call the fact little more than an urban myth in a Facebook post too.
07:193. One specific C-3PO trading card is worth a fortune
07:25As seen in the likes of one particular NBA legend LeBron James sporting piece of cardboard,
07:30being put up for grabs for around $6 million recently, highly exclusive trading cards have
07:36a habit of being quite valuable from time to time. And in the case of one specific Star Wars
07:41trading card that first reared its head in the midst of 1978's top Star Wars collection,
07:46fans had long believed that a certain enhanced edition of a C-3PO card had substantial market
07:51value should you get your lucky paws on it. As uncovered by Snopes.com though, the 207
07:56trading card which depicted Anthony Daniels' hapless robot sporting a rather well upgraded
08:01apparatus was initially thought to be extremely rare and therefore rather valuable. Yet in reality,
08:06the same number of cards were printed of this obscene 3PO as any other of the top's collection
08:11before the card was reprinted without the additional, um, length. Meaning that if you do
08:16just so happen to stumble upon a well-endowed protocol droid, you're likely not going to
08:20fetch LeBron levels of cash for the risky bot. 2. Harrison Ford improvised the I know line
08:27in the moment Far from being a spur of the moment outburst
08:30from Harrison Ford upon hearing Carrie Fisher's Princess Leia confess her love for the defiant
08:35smuggler, it turns out that the actor actually forged this plan sometime before the cameras
08:40rolled on that Cloud City set. As revealed in journalist Alan Arnold's transcription of a spot
08:45of brainstorming between Ford and director Irving Kirchner on the day of shooting, the actor pitched
08:50if she says I love you and I say I know, that's beautiful and acceptable and funny. It was still
08:56entirely Ford's idea, but one that was discussed and negotiated, admittedly without a frustrated
09:01Fisher's input, before the director had ever called action.
09:041. The Wampa Scene was written in specifically for Mark Hamill's injuries
09:10An awful lot was made out of the evident change of appearance Luke Skywalker and the star behind
09:14the lightsaber Mark Hamill underwent in the time between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back.
09:19With Hamill being involved in a car accident in 1977 and sustaining significant facial
09:24injuries that required doctors to take cartilage from his ear to mend his nose,
09:28a rumour would eventually snowball into a full-blown myth involving George Lucas writing
09:32in a specific scene to explain away his leading man's change of appearance.
09:37And while Skywalker's mauling at the hands of a Wampa early in the episode 5 day did
09:41partially help keep the real-life injuries from distracting away from the story being told,
09:45Lucas has since noted in Empire's Blu-ray commentary,
09:48There's a scene in the film where Mark gets beat up by the monster, which helps even more but that
09:53wasn't really the meaning of why we wrote the monster in the beginning. We needed something
09:56to keep the film suspenseful at the beginning while the Empire is looking for them.
10:01While admittedly giving the folks behind the feature a way of utilising a terrible and
10:05unfortunate situation for the Skywalker star, it's clear there was so much more to this
10:09particularly gnarly opening sequence than merely acting as a cover job for Hamill's mishap.
10:15And that's our list, know of any other lies about Star Wars people probably believe?
10:19Let us know all about them in the comments section right down below,
10:22and do not forget to like, share and click on that subscribe button while you're at it.
10:31I'll see you very, very soon. Bye!