Over several decades now, I've seen a lot of interviews with Lucas and others providing interesting background details on the Star Wars universe. Curiously, many of these have been ret-conned or forgotten since. Here are a few that have stuck in my head; the original sources of these things have been lost to time, but all of them came from official Lucas sources in magazines or TV interviews.

Has anyone else heard these? Or add your own!

1. Darth Maul isn't an alien; his horns and markings are an externalization of his dark side corruption. -- I very clearly remember Lucas saying this in a TV interview around the time of TPM. However, since every fanboy wanted to play Darth Maul in Star Wars Galaxies and every other Star Wars video game at the time, Maul became one example of a common alien race, rather than a uniquely-corrupted human.

2. Hutts have hair; Jabba just happens to be bald. -- can't remember where I heard this, but obviously this never caught on, as all Hutts are depicted as sans-hair, even in the "official cannon" prequels.

3. The Rancor Monster looks like that because it's horribly deformed. -- I remember reading this somewhere, I think from Lucas. The idea was that what Jabba had was a very sick, twisted creature, and that's why it was so violent; normal Rancors wouldn't be so lumpy I guess. But again, all video game depictions of Rancors are pretty much the same as the poor sap from RotJ, so this is another idea that never caught on I guess...

4. Boba Fett helped Vader hunt down and kill the remaining Jedi, and that's why they seem to know each other in Empire. -- I honestly can't remember if this is something I head Lucas say once, or if it was just grade school (yes, I'm old) speculation. Also, I haven't watched the Clone Wars animated series, so maybe Fett does hook up with Vader for some Jedi-killing.

5. The Trade Federation would go on to become the Empire, and the Lucrehulk Battleships (the crescent-shaped ones) were the forerunners of the Star Destroyers in the original series. -- This is something I read in a pictorial piece prior to TPM opening, I think in Time or Newsweek. Obviously, this turned out to be completely wrong; the Republic and the Empire turned out to be one and the same, and the Trade Federation was nothing but a pawn. Still, it's interesting to speculate if Lucas did intend the Trade Federation to be the Big Bad of the prequels, and changed his mind after it got a lukewarm reaction...

I'll add more if I think of them, but I'd love to see if anyone else has any of these weird, dead ideas that they've run across! There's got to be some good ones about C-3PO and R2...

Anakin becomes a jedi and then goes back to Tatoine to free all the slaves in a war against the slavers.

In Episode 1 Anakin says he has a dream where he becomes a Jedi and comes back to free all the slaves. Obviously this was supposed to be foreshadowing but in the lucas decided to change it.

I think Episode 2 would have been a lot better if Anakin came back and led a rebellion against the slavers. It would have been much better way of showing his character develop and you have sort of a moral gray area.

You have the slavers who are obviously evil and a Jedi who leads a rebellion which they are not supposed to do. You could also show him at odds with the Jedi council over this.

Then at the end when the Slavers obviously kill his mother he could go a little dark.

I remember seeing No: 4 a while back alright. That it was Bobba Fett and Vader who hunted down and killed all the jedi. In fact I was quiet let down that neither had much/if any part in the purge at all.

Maybe it was something that happened between EPIII and IV?

Anakin becomes a jedi and then goes back to Tatoine to free all the slaves in a war against the slavers.

 

 

In Episode 1 Anakin says he has a dream where he becomes a Jedi and comes back to free all the slaves. Obviously this was supposed to be foreshadowing but in the lucas decided to change it.

 

I think Episode 2 would have been a lot better if Anakin came back and led a rebellion against the slavers. It would have been much better way of showing his character develop and you have sort of a moral gray area.

 

You have the slavers who are obviously evil and a Jedi who leads a rebellion which they are not supposed to do. You could also show him at odds with the Jedi council over this.

 

Then at the end when the Slavers obviously kill his mother he could go a little dark.

YUP, excellent ideas that would have, at least for me, made the fall from light much more believable.

My biggest single gripe about the prequels is this unbelieveable transition of Anakin to DV.

A few things I remember from literature I read back in 77/78 after Star Wars released.

The race of Yoda was known. I remember reading about what race he was and they named it. But now Lucas won't allow any speculation on this subject. Unfortunately I cannot remember any details or reference. It was a long time ago.

Jabba the Hutt was orginally human. The orginal deleted scene from A New Hope shows Jabba the Hutt as a human when he is waiting for Han Solo at his ship. I think this was always intended and the term Hutt was some type of title for the man.

1. Darth Maul isn't an alien; his horns and markings are an externalization of his dark side corruption. -- I very clearly remember Lucas saying this in a TV interview around the time of TPM. However, since every fanboy wanted to play Darth Maul in Star Wars Galaxies and every other Star Wars video game at the time, Maul became one example of a common alien race, rather than a uniquely-corrupted human.

I'm not sure about this. SWG didn't come out until 2003. Lucas had a zabrak on the Jedi High Council in The Phantom Menace in 1999 (Eeth Koth).

We didn't learn they were called Zabrak until SWG, though.

I read something once on a forum or something before Attack of the Clones came out that Obi-Wan was supposed to fight a Clone Obi-Wan and the winner was supposed to be left ambiguous. Also there was always supposed to be more exploration of Alderaan which is annoying because as a life long fan I have always been curious.

nows your chance

Anakin becomes a jedi and then goes back to Tatoine to free all the slaves in a war against the slavers.

 

 

In Episode 1 Anakin says he has a dream where he becomes a Jedi and comes back to free all the slaves. Obviously this was supposed to be foreshadowing but in the lucas decided to change it.

 

I think Episode 2 would have been a lot better if Anakin came back and led a rebellion against the slavers. It would have been much better way of showing his character develop and you have sort of a moral gray area.

 

You have the slavers who are obviously evil and a Jedi who leads a rebellion which they are not supposed to do. You could also show him at odds with the Jedi council over this.

 

Then at the end when the Slavers obviously kill his mother he could go a little dark.

He does exacly that when he falls to the dark side, its in one of the Comics/Books Vader frees the slaves.

Jabba the Hutt was orginally human. The orginal deleted scene from A New Hope shows Jabba the Hutt as a human when he is waiting for Han Solo at his ship. I think this was always intended and the term Hutt was some type of title for the man.

I remember Lucas talking about that in one of the extra features on one of the DVD's. I don't think he planned Jabba to be human but they used the human as a place holder to have someone for Harrison Ford to be speaking to but the technology to create a moving hutt didn't exist at the time so that scene was cut.

I do remember him saying however that when they went to put the scene back in they had an issue that Han walked behind the actor at one stage so they edited the scene so that Han walks on Jabba's tail.

However Jabba does see much smaller in that scene than the one in ROTJ maybe he put on a lot of weight in the mean time?

In the original screenplay by Lucas, Jabba was always refered to as "Jabba the Hut"

"The Hut" was supposed to be a title originally. Later on it was changed to be a "Hutt" species.

To be honest, there are a lot of original Lucas ideas about Star Wars that i'm glad were scrapped. Luckily having other directors and writers helped tone down several of Lucas's overly wild ideas (until Jedi Rocks and Ewoks anyways...). Unfortunately when the prequels were made, nobody questioned Lucas, they just went ahead with it all.

As for the unbelievable transformation of Anakin to Vader in the movies, i can assure you that the Clone Wars go a long way to help this transition, and flesh out Anakin's character a lot more. CW Anakin>PT Anakin

I would have liked to see how Endor would have played out, if any differently, if Lucas had kept the first idea of making that a Wookie world/homeworld.

The way the clone wars played out in the movies is a lot different than the speculation that ran before SWEII. Everyone used to think that clones had something to do with specific people, more specifically Jedi, being cloned and attacking the Republic. I would have at least been interested in seeing where that could have gone.

I would have liked to see how Endor would have played out, if any differently, if Lucas had kept the first idea of making that a Wookie world/homeworld.

 

 

The way the clone wars played out in the movies is a lot different than the speculation that ran before SWEII. Everyone used to think that clones had something to do with specific people, more specifically Jedi, being cloned and attacking the Republic. I would have at least been interested in seeing where that could have gone.

I for one expected "Clone wars" to mean, clones of Jedi / Ancient Sith too. Dark Clones of Light Masters is exactly what I thought.

Over several decades now, I've seen a lot of interviews with Lucas and others providing interesting background details on the Star Wars universe. Curiously, many of these have been ret-conned or forgotten since. Here are a few that have stuck in my head; the original sources of these things have been lost to time, but all of them came from official Lucas sources in magazines or TV interviews.

 

Has anyone else heard these? Or add your own!

 

1. Darth Maul isn't an alien; his horns and markings are an externalization of his dark side corruption. -- I very clearly remember Lucas saying this in a TV interview around the time of TPM. However, since every fanboy wanted to play Darth Maul in Star Wars Galaxies and every other Star Wars video game at the time, Maul became one example of a common alien race, rather than a uniquely-corrupted human.

 

2. Hutts have hair; Jabba just happens to be bald. -- can't remember where I heard this, but obviously this never caught on, as all Hutts are depicted as sans-hair, even in the "official cannon" prequels.

 

3. The Rancor Monster looks like that because it's horribly deformed. -- I remember reading this somewhere, I think from Lucas. The idea was that what Jabba had was a very sick, twisted creature, and that's why it was so violent; normal Rancors wouldn't be so lumpy I guess. But again, all video game depictions of Rancors are pretty much the same as the poor sap from RotJ, so this is another idea that never caught on I guess...

 

4. Boba Fett helped Vader hunt down and kill the remaining Jedi, and that's why they seem to know each other in Empire. -- I honestly can't remember if this is something I head Lucas say once, or if it was just grade school (yes, I'm old) speculation. Also, I haven't watched the Clone Wars animated series, so maybe Fett does hook up with Vader for some Jedi-killing.

 

5. The Trade Federation would go on to become the Empire, and the Lucrehulk Battleships (the crescent-shaped ones) were the forerunners of the Star Destroyers in the original series. -- This is something I read in a pictorial piece prior to TPM opening, I think in Time or Newsweek. Obviously, this turned out to be completely wrong; the Republic and the Empire turned out to be one and the same, and the Trade Federation was nothing but a pawn. Still, it's interesting to speculate if Lucas did intend the Trade Federation to be the Big Bad of the prequels, and changed his mind after it got a lukewarm reaction...

 

I'll add more if I think of them, but I'd love to see if anyone else has any of these weird, dead ideas that they've run across! There's got to be some good ones about C-3PO and R2...

It's Lucas' playground/story/works and he can change it if he so chooses to. Creator's prerogative.

In regards to Boba aiding Vader in extinguishing Jedi between ep 3 and 4, this is apparently true. Play or read about the Force Unleashed video games which take place in this exact time period. I played both of them, they were alot of fun and the story to the first one is awesome, and is a MUST to play or read for any Star Wars fan. It ties alot of things together and provides and interesting connection between the trilogies. From my understanding, those games are canon, or at least the 1st one is. Lucas had a huge part in writing and aiding with the story of that game and has confirmed this himself. In fact I'm pretty sure it's the only SW video game he ever had a legitimate, leading part in.

So yes, Boba was involved with Vader during this time, as further explained in the first game.