Star Wars Facts: 5 Amazing Facts About the Space Opera Franchise You Didn’t Know

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We nearly missed out on Harrison Ford as Han Solo

Harrison Ford was called in by director George Lucas to feed the lines to the actors auditioning for the role of Han Solo. Apparently he did such a great job that he was cast for the iconic part.

George Lucas used WW2 footage to create Star Wars's battle sequences

The director admitted to using old footage and newsreels from WW2 in order to shoot the aerial space dogfights in Star Wars. The team at Industrial Light and Magic matched the film’s battle sequences to this footage.

Theaters were initially reluctant to show Star Wars

Very few theatres agreed to screen showings of Star Wars because it was believed to perform poorly amidst a host of other anticipated summer releases, particularly The Other Side of Midnight (1977). However, Star Wars went on to become the highest-grossing film of the time. 

The most famous Star Wars line is often misquoted

The legendary dialogue in the climactic scene of Empire Strikes Back is constantly misquoted as  “Luke, I am your father.” When Darth Vader reveals his true identity to Luke, he actually says, “No, I am your father.”

The Force Awakens has quite a few celebrity cameos

A whole bunch of celebrities made surprise cameos in the seventh instalment of the Star Wars franchise. Bill Hader voiced BB-8, Simon Pegg played Unkar Plutt while Daniel Craig was a stormtrooper.

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