As many of you Vigilantes know , Star Wars Chapter 9 The Rise of Skywalker drops today. I have already had my tickets for a while now. I am so excited for this momentous occasion.

I have seen every episode in theaters, granted the first trilogy came out before I was born, but I got to watch them as re-releases for a special event before the Episode 1 came out.

While you’re waiting in line at the theaters for your seats, I wanted to drop a little Skywalker level knowledge on you by presenting you with 50 little known facts about the Star Wars Universe.

1. Yoda was almost played by a monkey. George Lucas originally had the idea of putting a money in a mask and giving him a cane.
2. “Ewok” was never spoken in the original trilogy. I will have to go back and watch this to verify…
3. Boba Fett’s face can be seen in the original trilogy as the actor JEREMY BULLOCH also played an Imperial Officer.
4. Luke was originally going to become Vader at the end of JEDI after removing Vader’s helmet and putting it on.
5. Yoda grew a toe between EMPIRE and REVENGE OF THE SITH
6. The same production crew that worked ON 2001: A space odyssey also worked on Star Wars
7. Qui-Gon Jinn used a Gillette razor as a communicator. Yep, Ladies Sensor Excel.
8. The real Darth Vader (the man in the costume; David Prowse) is banned from all official Star Wars Conventions.
9. The sounds of the light saber comes from the “hum” of an old television.
10. Since Liam Neeson is a staggering 6’ 4” the crew of Phantom Menace had to rebuild sets due to his height. This cost production an extra $150 K.
11. Jabba the Hut was originally going to be furry.
12. Like before, Jabba the Hut was also going to be just a fat man.
13. Since Star Wars Episode IV didn’t begin with credits, George Lucas was forced to pay a fine and leave the Directors Guild.
14. Burt Reynolds, Al Pacino, Christopher Walken, and Jack Nicholson were originally in the running to play Han Solo. Is it strange that I would have loved to see this version!?!
15. Luke Skywalker was originally Luke Starkiller. Hence the name Starkiller base.
16. In the second draft of “Adventures of the Starkiller, Episode 1: The Star Wars” Luke was a girl.
17. The original actor to play the Emperor (Elaine Baker) was married to the guy in the monkey suit that was King Kong. Yep, the Emperor was married to King Kong.
18. The garbage in the garbage compactor that Luke and Han find themselves in was real.
19. George Lucas bet against Star Wars. Yep, on the film set of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, George bet that Steven Spielberg’s movie will be a much bigger hit than his.
20. The actor playing Wedge Antilles is Ewan McGreggor’s uncle.
21. The actor playing C-3PO found out the true “lineage” of Leia by falling asleep behind a tree. He was awoken when the shot was filmed and had to stay hidden. The secret wasn’t reveled to the rest of the cast until it’s premier.
22. Chewie’s fur is made from Yak belly fur.
23. Many actors in Star Wars have made their own infamous sound effects from Light saber to Laura Dern’s “pew pew” blaster sounds.
24. Famous director Francis Ford Coppola had major misgivings about Star Wars original scripts.
25. The original estimate for the movie was $18 million. Fox offered them $7.5 million. Eager to get started, George Lucas took the money and ran with it.
26. The original script was simply pen and paper.
27. The heavy troop transport in the Phantom Menace was designed after elephants.
28. Samuel L. Jackson was given the role of Mace Windu because in an interview he announced that he always wanted to play a Star Wars character.
29. The role of Mace Windu was created just for the actor.
30. After a storm destroyed the set of Mos Esoa, the Tunisian Army helped rebuild.
31. It took over 300 lightsaber blades to film the Phantom Menace.
32. Watto was the first full CGI character in the Star Wars universe.
33. Some of the audience members at the podrace in the Phantom Menace are nothing more than cotton swabs that are colored.
34. The audience cheering in the podrace are taken from a 49ers game.
35. Obi-Wan was originally going to survive his fated lightsaber duel with Vader in A New Hope.
36. Orson Wells was almost cast as Darth Vader’s voice but it was decided that his voice would be too recognizable.
37. Nightmare on Elm Street actor and Freddy himself, Robert Englund, originally auditioned for Han Solo. When he was rejected for being to old, he suggested his young friend Mark Hamill for the role. It eventually went to Harrison Ford and Mark was cast as Luke.
38. Mark Hamill was only paid $1,000 per week to play Luke Skywalker.
39. The original Millennium Falcon was very different. The prop design can be seen as the long cylindrical ship as the Rebel Blockade Runner seen fleeing the Imperial Star Destroyer in the opening of A New Hope.
40. In order to promote Star Wars, Fox Studio came to Lucas saying that he should come up with a Holiday special…the rest is history.
41. With the success of A New Hope, the studio had many demands for Empire. As a result, in order to get away from Fox’s demands, he fully funded Empire by himself.
42. Yoda’s first name was originally “Buffy”.
43. A lot of asteroids you see in the franchise are just spray painted potatoes.
44. David Prowse, the in-costume Vader, was originally cast as Chewie.
45. Dutch viewers already knew about the special relationship between Luke and Anakin as Vader and Vater mean “father”.
46. The novelization on the movie came out over 1 month before the movie’s release, also spoiling the big “I’m your father” reveal.
47. Most people also misquote the line, saying “Luke, I am your father.” When the real line is “No, I am your father.”
48. The battle of Endor was originally going to take place on the Wookiee home planet of Kashyyyk.
49. The famous speeder bike chase was filmed as speeders were going 1 mile a minute.
50. Warwick Davis was only cast as an Ewok due to the fact that R2 actor Kenny Baker fell ill to food poisoning.