May the 4th Be With You – 7 Fun Facts About Star Wars Day

Thanks to the fans of the Star Wars universe, May 4th has been celebrated as Star Wars Day since 2011. The date originated from an English pun based on one of the most famous lines from the film: "May the Force be with you," which can easily be interpreted as "May the fourth." In honor of this special day, we have compiled 7 interesting facts from the galaxy far, far away. Join us!

R2-D2 Wasn't Always Meant to Be So Cute

Everyone's favorite little droid, R2-D2, was originally intended to communicate not just in "robot language" that only his friends could understand but also with actual speech. On top of that, he was designed as a not-so-nice character with some choice words for C-3PO.

Team Lightsaber vs. Team Laser Sword

Every true Star Wars fan knows that Jedi fight with lightsabers, yet many articles and forums refer to the iconic weapon as a laser sword. So what's the truth? The creator of the Star Wars universe, George Lucas, originally named the Jedi's weapon a laser sword, as it appeared in an early draft of the Star Wars script.

Han Solo from Outer Space – It Could Have Been Different

Can you imagine Han Solo's character without Harrison Ford's memorable performance? In the 1973 draft of Star Wars, Han Solo was envisioned as a green fish-man from the planet Ureallia, whose mask would likely have obscured all his facial expressions. Perhaps it's not such a loss that they decided against this version.

Yoda's "Actor"

Yoda was brought to life by a puppet in the original Star Wars trilogy and The Phantom Menace. However, there was an idea to have a real "actor," a monkey, play the role. They even shot a few scenes before realizing that training a monkey was too troublesome, so they abandoned the idea. Another interesting fact about Yoda is that he has a different number of toes depending on which movie you watch: 3 in The Phantom Menace and 4 in the subsequent films.

When Star Wars Almost Caused a War

To create the barren, desert planet of Tatooine, Lucas found the perfect location in Tunisia. However, he didn't anticipate that filming these scenes could lead to serious socio-political tensions. Tunisia's neighboring state, Libya, was led by dictator Muammar Gaddafi at the time. Apparently, the Tunisian government received threats from Gaddafi, warning that conflict was inevitable if they did not remove the military vehicle from the Libyan border. Gaddafi did not realize that the "military vehicle" was actually a film prop, a Jawa sandcrawler.

Protecting Chewbacca

You might think that after filming the icy tundra scenes in The Empire Strikes Back, shooting on the forested moon of Endor was a breeze for the actors. This was true, with one exception: during the scenes shot in Northern California's Redwood forests, actor Peter Mayhew, who played Chewbacca, was guarded by bodyguards because there was a fear that hunters might mistake him for a bear and shoot him.

Inspiration from The Godfather

It's well known that George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars, was good friends with The Godfather director, Francis Ford Coppola. The influence of The Godfather can be seen in some moments of Star Wars: such as the organized crime relationship between Jabba and Han Solo and even Jabba's death. As we know, Jabba is strangled by Leia with a chain, a scene eerily similar to Luca Brasi's murder in The Godfather.

We hope we brought you some new insights into the world of Star Wars! On Star Wars Day, all we can say is take care, and "May the 4th be with you!"

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Featured image: Darth Vader / Star Wars – Photo: Outnow.ch