Celebrate the 20th anniversary of Episode III by diving into some factoids about the making of the prequel trilogy finale.
Did you know that George Lucas had two different “roles” in Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith? Or that Boba Fett technically pilots Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi around the galaxy at the end of the film? If not, read on!
Released in 2005, Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith capped the tragic tale of Anakin Skywalker in a way that has had audiences enraptured for twenty years. Like most Star Wars projects, the amount of hard work and incredible effort to bring this climactic story to life has been extensively marked by behind-the-scenes books, in-depth interviews, and DVD commentary tracks. In honor of the 20th anniversary, StarWars.com has culled 20 of the best Revenge tidbits so that you can impress your friends the next time you all watch the film. (Which will be soon, right? Right?)
1. “War!”: For the first moments of the battle above Coruscant, the passing Republic battleship was created and situated to evoke the familiar silhouette with Star Wars: A New Hope’s opening shot of the Star Destroyer. In addition to that original trilogy hallmark, the explosive scene also took inspiration from old pirate movies, which often featured two ships battling each other from their respective sides (something now also familiar to fans of Star Wars: Skeleton Crew).
2. General Knowledge: During the pre-production concept phase for Revenge, the unnamed “Droid General” was created to visually remind the audience of Anakin Skywalker’s ultimate fate. Because Darth Vader was loosely considered to be half machine and half man, General Grievous is purported to be 80% machine, 20% man, with life-support systems not perfected yet.
Skywalker Sound Supervisor Matthew Wood submitted his audition to voice Grievous anonymously, using the initials “A.S.” (Alan Smithee). The villain’s incessant coughing (initially explained in Genndy Tartakovsky’s Clone Wars cartoon by Mace Windu Force-crushing the General’s chest) was recorded on a day when director George Lucas had bronchitis.
3. Digital Magic: Every clone you see in Revenge of the Sith is digitally created. The first physically built clone armor only appeared nearly 20 years later in Disney+ shows Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi (the first time actor Temuera Morrison had ever worn the armor on-screen) and flashbacks in Star Wars: The Mandalorian.
4. Kenobi Carry-On: A full-size Ewan McGregor dummy was faithfully fabricated for Hayden Christensen to better carry around on set during the Invisible Hand sequence (a piece of movie magic unveiled initially by the StarWars.com Hyperspace webcam).
5. Piece of Junk: Eagle-eyed fans can spot a YT-1300 freighter like the Millennium Falcon entering a landing pad on Coruscant. The digital model of the “younger” version of the iconic ship was reverse engineered by Industrial Light & Magic’s Alex Jaeger to remove its burn marks and rust panels (as well as adding a green paint streak). Whether this ship is the actual Millennium Falcon has yet be seen...
6. Missing in Action: Quinlan Vos, a Jedi popularized in the period’s Dark Horse Comics and later in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, is briefly mentioned in the film by Obi-Wan Kenobi, but he was also supposed to physically appear on screen during Order 66. The animatic was created, but it was never actually filmed.
7. Sincerest Form of Flattery: Several iconic movies are used as inspiration for a variety of shots in the film. One of the most subtle: Yoda rubs his head at the 40:28 mark as a reference to Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, mimicking a character who had just shaved his head to look like a monk.
Other cinematic references in Revenge include several nods to Lucas’ close friend Francis Ford Coppola (including a montage similar to The Godfather during the climactic duels, as well as the Wookiees aping what the team deemed “Apocalypse Now shots” on Kashyyyk).
There is also a call-back to Stanley Kubrick, with the first shot of Polis Massa meant to be a reflection of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
8. A Night at the Opera: The performance watched by Anakin Skywalker and Chancellor Palpatine was dubbed “Squid Lake” by the crew, and was created to switch up the number of “Palpatine office conversations” that littered the script. Squid Lake attendees included George Lucas (made up as the blue-skinned Baron Papanoida), as well as his two daughters, Amanda Lucas and Katie Lucas. Lucasfilm and Industrial Light & Magic luminaries Rob Coleman, John Knoll, and Pablo Hidalgo also appear in the background, as well as a younger Rystáll Sant, the dancer who first appeared in the Special Edition of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.
Another Lucas family member, the creator’s son Jett Lucas, appeared onscreen in a more prominent role as Zett Jukassa, the young Jedi attempting to escape the clone troopers in front of Bail Organa.
9. By the Throat: Ian McDiarmid actually had laryngitis on the day he was to film his now iconic speech about Darth Plagueis. Although he was in the process of losing his voice, it ended up gaining a rather interesting gravelly quality that punctuated the scene.
10. Scruffy Looking: Early in development, a 10-year-old Han Solo was going to be shown living on Kashyyyk, eventually finding part of a transmitter droid that helps Yoda track Grievous to Utapau. It was scrapped because Lucas deemed his idea a little too on the nose, but not before concept art was created by Iain McCaig.
The idea of young Solo living among the Wookiees was initially suggested during a Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back story conference with Leigh Brackett in November of 1977.
11. Happy Life Day: The design for Kashyyyk was heavily drawn from the Star Wars Holiday Special, as well as Ralph McQuarrie and Joe Johnston’s original designs of the Wookiee homeworld. Visual effects “plates” were shot in China, with VFX director Roger Guyett sent to photograph the country’s mountains and water for three weeks. The centerpiece tree was a practical, intricate “bigature” created by ILM.
12. What’s in a Name?: “Utapau” came from some of the earliest drafts of what was then called The Star Wars, once floated as the planet that became Tatooine. The word stuck with Lucas and, years later (after another attempt for the planet that became Naboo), it made its on-screen debut as Revenge's sinkhole planet.
13. Tall Boys: Besides the returning Peter Mayhew as Chewbacca, the remaining Wookiees were played by very tall actors recruited from Australia’s professional basketball teams. Because the production had only fabricated eight Wookiee suits, they savvily used interchangeable props such as weaponry and armor pieces to give the many members of the very hairy army their own distinct looks.
14. Your Vote Matters: Before the film’s release, members of Hyperspace (the name of the official Star Wars Fan Club at the time) voted on the color of Ewan McGregor’s droid R4-G9 (who replaced the valiant but doomed R4-P17). The bronze R4-G9 eventually appeared as part of Hasbro’s Revenge of the Sith Sneak Preview action figure line.
15. “Boba Fett? Where?”: The late Jeremy Bulloch portrayed the pilot of the quasi-familiar Tantive III: Captain Jeremoch Colton (a character whose last name was mentioned in the original Star Wars novelization, with the first name a “Tuckerization” of its actor). Bulloch of course played Boba Fett in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Still remembered today, Colton’s fate was recently revealed in Marvel’s Star Wars : Crimson Reign comic book.
16. Practice Makes Perfect: In order to better familiarize himself with ILM’s technology before filming War of the Worlds, Steven Spielberg directed some pre-vis animatics for Revenge, specifically the set-piece-heavy Mustafar duel, the thrilling Utapau chase, and the Yoda and Sidious duel in the Senate chambers. At one time, the latter fight was to be broadcast across the HoloNet for the galaxy to see, as reflected in the animatic.
17. Fire and Brimstone: The ancient Italian volcano Mt. Etna exploded in November 2002, so production quickly sent cameraman Ron Frickle and an assistant to shoot footage that was later overlaid with ILM visual and practical work. The lava planet, now officially deemed “Mustafar,” was first glimpsed when original Star Wars concept artist Ralph McQuarrie workshopped designs for Vader’s lava castle, something that would have appeared in the later installments of the original trilogy.
18. Fast and Furious: Bail Organa’s bright red, sleek speeder is a sly reference to the Tucker car, which of course was further immortalized in a film George Lucas produced, Tucker: A Man and His Dreams. As Lucas quipped, “I guess we should have put a THX license plate on it, but we forgot.”
19. More Machine Than Man: The climactic montage, with the parallel symmetry of Padmé giving birth to Luke and Leia, intercut with the “birth” of Darth Vader on the operating table, also includes a further nod to the future: Vader becomes “more machine than man” while lying atop what appears to be the shadow of an Imperial crest.
20. Happy Days are Here Again: Concept artist Erik Tiemens’ photos of panoramic clouds that he took while on his Tahiti honeymoon were eventually used for the final (and quite beautiful) digital matte painting of Tatooine.
