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10 Fun Facts About 'The Phantom Menace'!

There's always a bigger fish.

By Jonathan SimPublished 5 years ago 4 min read
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Happy Star Wars Day, everyone! May the Fourth be with you all!

I'm not gonna have too much time to write today, because I'm marathoning the Star Wars films to celebrate this special day, but I decided to give you ten fun facts about the very first (chronological) episode of the series: The Phantom Menace. So, here we go.

1. A puppet was originally used to portray Yoda in the film.

In The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, Yoda was portrayed by a puppet. They were planning on creating a CGI Yoda for this film, but the technology was not up to scratch yet, so a puppet was used, despite bearing obvious differences from the puppet in the OT.

Years later, The Phantom Menace was rereleased, with a fully CGI Yoda replacing the puppet.

2. E.T., the Extraterrestrial makes a cameo appearance.

During the scene with the Galactic Senate, there is a shot where if you look at the bottom-left corner of the screen, you can see E.T., and a few of his friends participating in the meeting.

His species of alien is known as "Asogians," and this was done by George Lucas to pay Steven Spielberg back for putting a Yoda cameo in his film, E.T. the Extraterrestrial.

3. Michael Jackson wanted a role in the film.

The world-famous pop singer reportedly wanted nothing more than to portray the role of Jar-Jar Binks in the film. He envisioned portraying the character in all prosthetics and makeup, but Lucas wanted Jar-Jar as a CGI creation, and it didn't work out.

Instead, the role went to Ahmed Best, and personally, I think he gives the best performance in the movie. Just saying.

4. It's the first Star Wars film to show a lightsaber being activated every time.

Since technology had improved since the original trilogy, they were able to actually show lightsabers being turned off and on every time they are activated.

This was seldom done in the original trilogy. You may notice that every time a lightsaber is turned on or off in the OT, it is either offscreen or there are two shots stitched together to look like one, as they needed one shot with just the handle and another shot with a blade attached to the handle.

5. Many sets in the film weren't completely built.

To make the environments in this film, sets were only built as high as the actors' heads reached. The space above their heads were filled in with computer graphics in order to save money.

Given that Liam Neeson was much taller than the rest of the cast, his height ended up costing the crew an extra $150,000 in construction.

6. Keira Knightley makes one of her first film appearances in this film.

Knightley's parents did not want her to audition, but given that she was a huge Star Wars fan, she auditioned anyway and won the role of Sabé, Queen Amidala's double in the film.

When Portman and Knightley were dressed and in their queen makeup, the two ended up resembling each other so much that Knightley's mother had difficulty recognizing which one was her own daughter.

7. Ewan McGregor would frequently make lightsaber noises during his fight scenes.

This was noted during preproduction and edited out of the film.

And honestly, I don't blame him. If I was fighting with a lightsaber, I wouldn't be able to help myself from going, "wuuuhh... wuuuuhh... KEYOW... wuuhhh... KEYOW!"

8. Jake Lloyd retired from acting because of the role.

After the release of this film, child actor Jake Lloyd was bullied and teased constantly for his performance. Other children would make lightsaber noises at him when he walked by, and his performance was panned, causing him to retire from acting.

However, he still reprised his role in a few video games, and has made appearances in Star Wars conventions.

9. Watto is always flying because he is crippled.

In the film, you'll notice Watto is always flying. This is because one of his feet is longer than the other. He also talks out of the side of his mouth, because his broken tusk affects his ability to speak.

10. The original script had more of a focus on Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Originally, Obi-Wan Kenobi was a fully-trained Jedi at the beginning of the film, instead of a Padawan learner, and he is the only Jedi negotiator sent to Naboo.

Qui-Gon Jinn was not introduced until after the main characters reached Coruscant, and he was to be the same age as Obi-Wan instead of his mentor.

And that's it! I have to go now, because I've already watched the prequels, A New Hope, and The Empire Strikes Back, and now, I have to watch Return of the Jedi.

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About the Creator

Jonathan Sim

Film critic. Lover of Pixar, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Marvel, DC, Back to the Future, and Lord of the Rings.

For business inquiries: [email protected]

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