Sexual assumptions, apparent pieces of iconic improv and many more Star Wars lies you believe...
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00:00 From iconic spur-of-the-moment one-liners being anything but that, to certain supposed
00:04 character inspirations being far from the actual truth, it's time to uncover just
00:09 how valid these Star Wars facts actually are.
00:12 I'm Gareth from What Culture's Star Wars and here are 10 Lies About Star Wars You Probably
00:17 Believe
00:18 10.
00:20 Jedi Knights Are Celibate
00:22 Largely framed as monk-like figures for the most part, it's not hard to see why most
00:26 Star Wars fans would assume the galaxy's supposed forces of good were very much sworn
00:30 to celibacy from the second they decided to follow the path of the Jedi.
00:34 However, as George Lucas would later reveal to the BBC around the time of Attack of the
00:38 Clones, it turns out that the likes of Anakin Skywalker bumping uglies with another isn't
00:43 as off-limits as you initially expected.
00:45 As Lucas put it, Jedi Knights aren't celibate.
00:48 The thing that is forbidden is attachments and possessive relationships.
00:52 So in other words, settling down to start a family with someone you're very much in
00:56 love with?
00:57 That's a big no-no.
00:58 Feeling that the force is particularly strong with someone else for one night only, no strings
01:02 attached, however?
01:03 That's apparently all good according to the Jedi Order's questionable rulebook.
01:08 9.
01:09 Lando Calrissian Was Designed Purely As A Han Solo Replacement
01:13 Not for the last time on this collection of supposed Star Wars truths, I direct you to
01:17 an intriguing Twitter thread created by Lucasfilm Creative Art Manager Phil Sjostak back in
01:22 August 2019.
01:24 Going out of his way to reveal whether a number of intergalactic myths were right on the money
01:28 or drastically far from the truth, one of the most notable facts Sjostak targeted with
01:32 a social media proton torpedo came in the form of the truth behind why Lando Calrissian
01:37 came into being in the first place.
01:40 According to a popular urban legend, Billy Dee Williams' character was only unleashed
01:44 into this galaxy far, far away as a way of replacing Han Solo.
01:48 With Harrison Ford not being nailed on to return for either The Empire Strikes Back
01:51 or Return of the Jedi before the sequels were written, yet after happily re-signing to appear
01:56 in Episode 5 and eventually Episode 6, the fact Lando wasn't swiftly brushed to one
02:00 side all but confirmed that, while still possibly being a fallback should Ford's character
02:05 be permanently frozen in carbonite, the smuggler was much more than a simple solo substitute.
02:10 8.
02:12 Ralph McQuarrie's Artwork Convinced 20th Century Fox On Star Wars
02:16 Sticking with Lucasfilm Creative Art Manager Phil Sjostak's intriguing Twitter revelations
02:21 now, and to what many felt was a supposed deal-breaker when it came to 20th Century
02:25 Fox giving this galaxy far, far away the all-important green light.
02:30 According to some corners of the old interweb, prolific Star Wars concept artist Ralph McQuarrie
02:34 was the one responsible for blowing the minds of the various directors on the Fox board,
02:39 to the point of simply having to pump money into this game-changing endeavour.
02:42 But as Sjostak would reveal in said thread, despite being handed various pieces of compelling
02:47 artwork in an attempt to pitch and sell this sprawling tale to the studio, this still wasn't
02:52 enough to entirely convince Fox to commit to the project.
02:55 In the end, it was actually George Lucas' relationship with Fox executive Alan Ladd
02:59 Jr. which helped seal the deal for the incoming flick, with it being noted in the making of
03:03 Star Wars book that Ladd's backing was the key.
03:07 7.
03:09 Mark Hamill Said "Carry" After Destroying the Death Star
03:12 Never want to muffle his freakishly talented voice should the opportunity arise to sprinkle
03:16 some additional Star Wars details onto his Twitter feed, Mark Hamill was at it again
03:20 back in 2019, when he was confronted with an age-old myth about what actually tumbled
03:25 out of Luke Skywalker's mouth upon greeting his pals post-Death Star Destruction in A
03:30 New Hope.
03:31 To many, it's clear that the rebel hero was accidentally blurting out the real-life
03:35 name of his co-star Carrie Fisher, when gleefully greeted by Leia Organa and Han Solo in the
03:40 hangar.
03:44 But Hamill has consistently denied this to be the case, with his most recent debunking
03:48 of the theory coming on his Twitter account in a reply to a curious fan.
03:53 As the actor behind the iconic Jedi Master put it, "No matter how often this is debunked,
03:57 it still comes back.
03:59 The entire scene was dubbed.
04:00 I said, 'There she is,' when I saw her.
04:04 George would have never allowed me to say 'Carrie' even if I wanted to as a joke,
04:08 which I didn't.
04:09 It makes no sense."
04:10 While some Star Wars moments are most definitely open for interpretation, Hamill himself, George
04:14 draws the line at a piece of dialogue that he feels just makes no sense in the grand
04:19 scheme of things.
04:20 6.
04:21 Chewbacca's Name Had Russian Origins
04:23 It's been well-documented how a number of intriguing sources reused as inspiration for
04:28 the fiery, wookie sidekick by the name of Chewbacca.
04:31 Away from George Lucas' dog, Indiana, giving the director the initial idea for a big, furry
04:36 side character in Star Wars, though, another widely circulated rumour isn't actually
04:41 as valid as his canine origins.
04:43 When uncovered during Phil Solstak's Twitter thread of force-sensitive goodness, the idea
04:47 of Chewbacca's name deriving from the Russian words 'shudov', 'shiai' and 'sobaka'
04:51 - yes, I'm terrible at Russian - meaning 'monster' and 'dog', respectively, was
04:55 thoroughly dissected by the Lucasfilm Creative Arts manager.
04:58 As Solstak noted, Lucas himself went on record in the making of Star Wars books to admit
05:03 that the likes of Chewbacca and other wookie names were created by simply changing words
05:07 around, as you do, with there being zero mention of the aforementioned Russian inspirations.
05:12 On top of this, the site that originated this particular myth did not come equipped with
05:16 a source for said information either, again suggesting that its validity is questionable
05:21 at best.
05:22 Much like my terrible Russian pronunciations.
05:25 5.
05:26 George Lucas had 9-12 movies mapped out from the start
05:30 The creator of Skywalkers and Solos alike has often been cited for having a whopping
05:35 9-12 Star Wars features bubbling over in his mind from the very beginning.
05:39 But the Game Changer himself has gone on record to reveal that this wasn't actually entirely
05:43 the case.
05:44 Regardless of Mark Hamill once noting how the creator told him it was four trilogies
05:48 during the filming of that first cinematic trip into space.
05:51 While it would undoubtedly take on a life of its own in the decades that would follow
05:54 A New Hope, George Lucas once told MTV that this was never planned as a nine-episode work.
06:00 Going further, the father of Star Wars would add,
06:02 "The media pounced when I made an offhand comment.
06:05 It might be fun to come back when everyone's 80 and do another one of these.
06:09 But I never had any intention of doing that."
06:11 Despite eventually committing to crafting some sequel trilogy treatments later down
06:15 the road, Disney opted to go down their own route for Episode VII onwards, and steered
06:20 mostly clear of Lucas' intriguing, Leia-led new trilogy concept.
06:24 4.
06:26 The Millennium Falcon was inspired by a hamburger
06:29 Han Solo and Chewbacca's Millennium Falcon has long come equipped with a rather bizarre
06:33 origin story of sorts, with George Lucas himself once noting how he cited a "hamburger"
06:38 as an early design idea for the ship.
06:40 However, as Phil Sostak would again unpack in his compelling Twitter mission to uncover
06:44 the truth behind many of Star Wars' often-debated "facts", this half-bitten burger with an
06:49 olive on the side concept may not have actually been the source of inspiration for the finished
06:53 article.
06:54 As Falcon designer Joe Johnston would note later down the road, Lucas may have said that
06:59 it could have the essence of a flying saucer, and that the designer landed on the disc-shaped
07:03 hull after a series of very rough sketches.
07:06 And adding further weight to the claims of the visual of a hamburger with an olive on
07:10 the side providing the foundations for this eventual pop culture icon being all false,
07:15 Johnston would also call the fact little more than an urban myth in a Facebook post, too.
07:20 3.
07:22 One specific C-3PO trading card is worth a fortune
07:25 As seen in the likes of one particular NBA legend LeBron James sporting piece of cardboard,
07:30 being put up for grabs for around $6 million recently, highly exclusive trading cards have
07:35 a habit of being quite valuable from time to time.
07:39 And in the case of one specific Star Wars trading card that first reared its head in
07:42 the midst of 1978's Topps Star Wars collection, fans had long believed that a certain enhanced
07:48 edition of a C-3PO card had substantial market value should you get your lucky paws on it.
07:53 As uncovered by Snopes.com, though, the 207 trading card which depicted Anthony Daniels'
07:58 hapless robot sporting a rather well-upgraded apparatus was initially thought to be extremely
08:03 rare and therefore rather valuable.
08:05 Yet, in reality, the same number of cards were printed of this obscene 3PO as any other
08:10 of the Topps collection before the card was reprinted without the additional, um, length.
08:15 Meaning that if you do just so happen to stumble upon a well-endowed protocol droid, you're
08:19 likely not going to fetch LeBron levels of cash for the risky bot.
08:23 2.
08:25 Harrison Ford improvised the "I know" line in the moment
08:28 Far from being a spur of the moment outburst from Harrison Ford upon hearing Carrie Fisher's
08:33 Princess Leia confess her love for the defiant smuggler, it turns out that the actor actually
08:37 forged this plan some time before the cameras rolled on that Cloud City set.
08:42 As revealed in journalist Alan Arnold's transcription of a spot of brainstorming between
08:46 Ford and director Irving Kirshner on the day of shooting, the actor pitched "If she says
08:50 I love you and I say I know, that's beautiful and acceptable and funny."
08:55 It was still entirely Ford's idea, but one that was discussed and negotiated - admittedly
08:59 without a frustrated Fisher's input - before the director had ever called action.
09:04 1.
09:05 The Wampa Scene was written in specifically for Mark Hamill's injuries
09:10 An awful lot was made out of the evident change of appearance Luke Skywalker and the star
09:14 behind the lightsaber Mark Hamill underwent in the time between A New Hope and The Empire
09:18 Strikes Back.
09:19 With Hamill being involved in a car accident in 1977, and sustaining significant facial
09:24 injuries that required doctors to take cartilage from his ear to mend his nose, a rumour would
09:28 eventually snowball into a full-blown myth involving George Lucas writing in a specific
09:33 scene to explain away his leading man's change of appearance.
09:37 And while Skywalker's mauling at the hands of a Wampa early in the episode 5 day did
09:41 partially help keep the real-life injuries from distracting away from the story being
09:45 told, Lucas has since noted in Empire's Blu-ray commentary, "There's a scene in the film
09:49 where Mark gets beat up by the monster, which helps even more, but that wasn't really the
09:53 meaning of why we wrote the monster in the beginning.
09:56 We needed something to keep the film suspenseful at the beginning while the Empire is looking
10:00 for them."
10:01 While admittedly giving the folks behind the feature a way of utilising a terrible and
10:04 unfortunate situation for the Skywalker star, it's clear there was so much more to this
10:09 particularly gnarly opening sequence than merely acting as a cover job for Hamill's
10:13 mishap.
10:14 And that's our list, know of any other lies about Star Wars people probably believe?
10:19 Let us know all about them in the comments section right down below and do not forget
10:23 to like, share and click on that subscribe button while you're at it.
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