Spoilers for Star Wars: The Force Awakens throughout.
1. Star Wars creator George Lucas discussed ideas for a new sequel trilogy featuring the return of the original cast several times, but repeatedly denied any intent to actually make it. However, back in 1983 Mark Hamill let the cat out of the bag whilst he was being interviewed about Return of the Jedi on TV-AM. Hamill revealed that Lucas had already spoken to him about returning to the role of Luke Skywalker, with him coming back as an Obi-wan Kenobi-like character "passing Excalibur" onto the next generation in Episode VII. He also added that Episode VII would not be until 2011...
2. Hamill wasn't too far out as after selling his company, Lucasfilm, to Walt Disney in October 2012 and announcing the production of Episodes VII-IX, George Lucas initially stayed on as creative consultant for the development of new series of movies. Lucas attended early story meetings and advised on the details of the Star Wars universe. Among the materials he turned over to the production team were his rough story treatments for the new trilogy, but he soon revealed that Disney quickly discarded his story ideas and that he had no further involvement with the film. Lucas later said that Disney had not been "that keen" to involve him and admitted,
"If I get in there, I'm just going to cause trouble because they're not going to do what I want them to do, and I don't have the control to do that any more, and all it would do is just muck everything up."3. In November 2012 it was announced that Michael Arndt would be writing the screenplay for Star Wars Episode VII, however in October of the following year Arndt exited the project and was replaced on scripting duties by J.J. Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan. The reason for this was that Arndt had requested a further 18 months to complete his screenplay, which was more time than Disney or Abrams were willing to give him.
Abrams and Kasdan started work straight away, planning out the story whilst walking for miles in places like Santa Monica, New York City, Paris and London. They completed their first draft in just six weeks.
4. When Rey picks up Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber for the first time she is flooded with visions from the future and past. There's a lot of imagery and voices flying at you at once, but if you listen closely you'll hear a couple of familiar voices, as J.J. Abrams revealed...
“You do hear a little bit of Yoda and you hear Obi-Wan at the end say, ‘Rey…these are your first steps.’ We asked Ewan McGregor to come in and do the line. And he was awesome and we were very grateful. He was incredibly sweet and handsome, and all that stuff. Then he rode off on his motorcycle. Literally the coolest voice over actor ever.”But McGregor's isn't the only voice of Obi-Wan present in the scene. Using some editing magic (cutting down 'afraid' to 'Rey'), Abrams also got original Obi-Wan, Alec Guinness, to talk to Rey.
“We took a line from Alec Guinness saying ‘Afraid.’ You hear the performance – he’s saying it the way I would have begged Alec Guinness to have said it. So when you hear Obi-Wan talk to Rey it is both Alec Guinness and Ewan McGregor doing the voice.”
5. Anthony Daniels, who plays C-3PO, is the only actor to appear in every Star Wars movie. Kenny Baker, who was originally announced as part of the cast, ended up being credited as "consultant" for R2-D2.
6. During an interview around the release of SPECTRE, Daniel Craig vehemently denied having a cameo in Star Wars: The Force Awakens...
“Why would I ever bother doing something like that? F—ing hell! Pffft. Play an extra in another movie.”You kiss your mother with that mouth Daniel?
But he does indeed appear in the movie. Craig plays a Stormtrooper guarding Rey. Rey then decides to test out her newly awakened Force powers by trying a little Jedi mind trick on him.
Rey: You will remove these restraints and leave this cell with the door open.
Stormtrooper: What did you say?
Rey: You will remove these restraints and leave this cell with the door open.
Stormtrooper: I will tighten these restraints, scavenger scum!
Rey: You will remove these restraints and leave this cell with the door open.
Stormtrooper: I will remove these restraints and leave this cell with the door open.
[he does so]
Rey: And you will drop your weapon.
Stormtrooper: And I'll drop my weapon.
7. Before being christened “Finn” by Poe Dameron, everyone’s new favorite ex-Stormtrooper was known only by his identification number, FN2187. While this may seem like a randomly assigned number, 2187 is also the number of the cell where Princess Leia was imprisoned in during A New Hope.
8. Poe Dameron was originally supposed to die in the TIE Fighter crash near the beginning of the movie. Oscar Isaac explained that when he was offered the role of Dameron it was significantly smaller...
“I went back home, and I thought about it. Then I wrote [to J.J.] and said, ‘Okay. I’ll do it!’ I figured it would be a cameo: I’ll come in, do my thing, and maybe it’s actually better not to have to sign myself up for three movies.” By that time, though, things had changed and Abrams soon wrote back: “Never mind. I’ve figured it out. You’re in the whole movie now.”9. Someone who wasn't supposed to die, but ended up being impaled through the chest by his own son, was Han Solo. In Michael Arndt's originally screenplay Han had a much happier ending.
“I had thought Han story and Leia’s story was just about them coming back together. At the end of the movie they would have reconciled and gotten over their differences. And you would have said, ‘Okay, bad stuff happened, but at least they’re back together again. J.J. rightly asked, ‘What is Han doing in this movie?’ If we’re not going to have something important and irreversible happen to him, then he kind of feels like luggage. He feels like this great, sexy piece of luggage you have in your movie. But he’s not really evolving. He’s not really pushing the story forward.”So blame J.J.!
10. Sticking with Han, before he fell into one of those trademark bottomless chasms Star Wars is so keen upon, he got to utter the line “I’ve got a bad feeling about this” one last time after his freighter was overrun with Rathtars.
The classic line, or slight variation of it, had been said by someone in all the previous six Star Wars movies, including Luke in IV, Leia in V, C-3P0 in VI, Obi-Wan in I, Anakin in II and Obi-Wan once again in III, but The Force Awakens sees Han take the lead with three uses of the phrase...
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