• Did you know… that Ewan “Obi-Wan” McGregor is the nephew of Denis Lawson, who played the pilot Wedge Antilles in the original Star Wars trilogy.
• Did you know… that aliens, the same species as E.T., can be seen in the senate, right after Queen Amidala calls for a vote of no confidence in chancellor Valorum’s leadership.
• Did you know… that Lucas ends the dialogue in the Phantom Menace like a Shakespearean play, with a rhyming couplet: “Always two there are, no more, no less: a master and an apprentice.” “But which was destroyed? The master or the apprentice?”
• Did you know… that Queen Amidala protects herself by posing as one of her own underlings? The same ploy was used by the President of the United States in Superman II (1980) to conceal his identity from General Zod, played by Terence Stamp – who plays Chancellor Valorum in the Phantom Menace.
• Did you know… that “Attack of the Clones” was filmed on the very same sound stage as “Moulin Rogue!”, in which Ewan McGregor also had a lead role.
• Did you know… that “Padme” is a common word in Buddhism and is Sanskrit for “lotus”? “Yoda” is also derived from the Sanskrit word for “warrior.”
• Did you know… that Natalie Portman (Queen Amidala) missed the premiere party in New York because she had to go home to study for her high school final exams
• Did you know… that in The Empire Strikes Back, Mark Hamill had to bang his head 16 times on the ceiling of Yoda’s hut before the director was satisfied. (Ouch!)
• Did you know… that you can see the “Star Wars Pod Racer” game on the left most screen in the bar where Anakin chases Padmés would-be assasin?
• Did you know... that when they filmed the fighting scenes in Phantom Menace – Ewan McGregor made lightsaber noises as he dueled? It was noticed only afterwards and had to be edited out in post production.
• Did you know… a pod from the Discovery in 2001:A Space Odyssey can be seen behind Qui-Gon in Watto’s junkyard.
• Did you know… that Carrie Fisher was 19 when she filmed Star Wars : A New Hope? That’s the same age her mother, Debbie Reynolds, was when she filmed “Singin’ in the Rain” with Gene Kelly
• Did you know… that for some shots at the podrace in Phantom Menace – thousands of colored Q-Tips were used to pose as the audience? Enough Q-Tips to last a normal person dozens of lifetimes.
• Did you know… that 2 to 3 spraycans a day were used on Chewie’s face mask alone to keep all the long furr in place.
• Did you know… that before Natalie Portman was cast for her role as Queen Amidala in Star Wars : Episode I, she had never seen the original 3 Star Wars movies.
• Did you know… that the Ewoks sing in Swedish? In the chorus for the end title song they sing “Det luktar flingor här” which means “it smells like cereal here”.
• Did you know… that “Attack of the clones” is the first movie where Yoda is completely computer animated? Frank Oz was available on the set, but only as an aid to the actors with his voice.
• Did you know… that Nien Numb is speaking a Kenyan dialect? What he says to Lando is in fact: “One thousand herds of elephants are standing on my foot”.
• Did you know… that Qui-Gon Jinn’s communicator is a razor for women (Sensor Excel) that’s been painted and redecorated.
• Did you know… that James Earl Jones, who provided the powerful voice of Darth Vader, used to take acting classes to control his stutter.
• Did you know… that even David Prowse, who played Darth Vader, didn’t know he was Luke’s father until the opening of the movie? Director Irving Kerschner had only told him to make a fist and look angry.
• Did you know that… “In the first film, I had to wear that white dress and I couldn’t wear a bra. Everything was bouncing around, so I had to wear gaffer’s tape for three months to keep my breasts down. A new crew member used to come up every day and get to rip it off.” – Carrie Fisher (Rolling Stone July 24, 1980)

(Pulled from various interviews with crew and/or cast)