Happy Friday! We are cruising along right through February. Can you believe the month is nearly had over? I know I can’t. Start your Friday off right but checking out this week’s fun facts.
That’s not the Imperial March.
In ‘Return of the Jedi’ when Darth Vader picks up the Emperor and throws him down the shaft, The Force Theme is playing instead of his regular Imperial March. This is the only time The Force Theme plays over a shot of Vader and is symbolic of him returning to the light side of the Force.
Han wasn’t originally supposed to be frozen in carbonate.
In early drafts of ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ Vader wasn’t supposed to catch Han Solo. Instead, Han was supposed to fly away with Chewie in the Millennium Falcon. So why did things change? Although Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill signed on for ‘The Return of the Jedi’ Harrison wasn’t sure he wanted to do another movie as Han Solo. George Lucas didn’t want to just kill him off so he had him frozen instead. Had Harrison decided to not reprise the role, Han would still be a wall decoration in Jabba’s place.
Shadow or no shadow?
Recently I’ve seen a lot of people posting on social media asking if they’ve caught mistakes in some of the lightsaber scenes in the movies because the lightsabers were casting a shadow. So is this a mistake? No, it’s not. Anything that’s opaque, casts a shadow which explains why the shadows were not removed post-production or at least gives a valid reason for what may have started out as an oversight.
Bigfoot is that you?
While filming ‘The Return of the Jedi’ in the forests of the Pacific Northwest, Peter Mayhew was advised not to wander off while wearing the Chewbacca costume so he wouldn’t be mistaken for Bigfoot and possibly shot. As someone from the Pacific Northwest, I can safely say I would not be surprised at all if someone genuinely mistook the 7’ 2” actor for bigfoot while in costume.
Audition tapes.
Auditioning for any movie can be intimidating, throw in the fact that it’s a Star Wars movie and it would be downright stressful. “For the first few auditions that I did for ‘Star Wars,’ I had to acquire a dramatic approach because of the content on the page,” Boyega told CNET. “But then after a while, I thought to myself, ‘Wait, this is ‘Star Wars.’ ‘Star Wars’ is different from any other project. ‘Star Wars’ has its own culture. It has its own energy.”
To prepare for his own audition he turned to YouTube where he watched auditions from the original cast, more specifically the auditions of Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford.
“And I watched their audition, and there was this casual approach to danger and to being a hero that I drew some inspiration from,” explained Boyega. “If you see Harrison in his audition and Mark, there’s this, ‘The ship’s about to blow up, but, woo hoo! Switch to light speed!’ I love that. No other movie does that. In another movie they’d be crying and calling their parents, but in ‘Star Wars’ it’s like, ‘woo!'”
I can’t imagine the pressure that comes along with trying out for a role in a Star Wars film can you?
Well, that’s it for this week’s fun facts. Which fact was your favorite? Have a fact you’d like added to the next post? Message me on social media and let me know!
Nerf Herder News 
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