May the Fourth be with you! Every year on May 4th we celebrate one of the greatest movie franchises ever. Here are a few things you may not know about Star Wars and its cast of characters (according to Virgin Radio UK, and various other sources).
1- Darth Vader - The first actor that George Lucas tapped to play the super villain was legendary director and actor Orson Welles. However, Lucas eventually decided that Welles' voice was too recognizable. James Earl Jones eventually won the role.
2- The Opening Crawl - "...A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away..." Those words were actually printed out in yellow on a long piece of paper and the camera scanned over them. Talk about making low tech look high tech! Lucas has said that the idea for the crawl came from the old "Flash Gordon" TV show.
3- Freddy Kruger the Jedi?! - Among the actors originally considered for the roles of Luke Skywalker and Han Solo, was Robert Englung, who would go on to play Freddy in "A Nightmare on Elm Street."
4- "The Bandit" playing Han Solo?? - When casting the role of Han Solo, George Lucus reportedly sent scripts to Hollywood heavyweights James Caan, Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro and Burt Reynolds. A similarly famous list of actors even auditioned, including Kurt Russell, Christopher Walken, Sylvester Stallone, John Travolta, Chevy Chase and Rhode Island's own James Woods. Can you imagine how different the movies would have been if Harrison Ford hadn't been cast as Han?
5- R2D@ Talked? - In some of the scenes with R2D2, the little droid actually spoke lines which were covered up with the now-famous beeps and boops in post production.
6- Luke Skykiller!? - In the original script, Luke's last name was Skykiller instead of Skywalker. Lucas decided that "Skykiller" was too negative and might even be associated with Charles Manson, who had ordered the murder of star actress Sharon Tate in Hollywood less than a decade earlier.
Video: YouTube Photo: Getty Images Source: VirginRadio UK