Neither A New Hope, nor Star Wars: the title that the Star Wars movie was originally going to have was Adventures of Luke Starkiller, as taken from the Journal of the Whills. It’s not something that George Lucas wrote down on a napkin, mind you, but it was written on the first page of the script that he gave to his actors. The change was for the better and evolved retroactively as the rest of the installments were released. And yet, it was not the strangest working title in the entire galactic saga.
Go ahead than when it was rolled Star Wars: A New Hope It was not taken for granted that it would become a phenomenon, much less a cult film. Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) himself lent his script to anyone who wanted to read it and Harrison Ford lost his. More specifically, the one that said “Adventures of Luke Starkiller…” on the cover. And even though the sequel came later, George Lucas was always clear that its title would not be “Star Wars II”. Logically, something had to be put in the drafts before coming up with The Empire Strikes Back.
Star Wars and the importance of movie titles
By the time the third film was released Star Wars The phenomenon had exploded, and that meant that expectations skyrocketed, so a trick was used to avoid complications: filming and production were done using the name and logo of Blue Harvest. O Blue Harvest: Horror Beyond Imaginationdepending on what phase we were in. A false step? More like a masterstroke:
- From the outset, it was a very effective way of not having to deal with journalists or curious people who could leak what was happening to the fans and, incidentally.
- But, above all, because avoiding any relationship with Star Wars or the Jedi in the name prevented them from being overcharged for externally contracted services and factors.
However, George Lucas considered that that film, released in 1983, be called Revenge of the Jedi (Revenge of the Jedi) until practically the last moment, changing his mind since the nature of his heroes does not contemplate revenge. Of course, reserving that title for years for what will become the prequel trilogy with Revenge of the Sithalready in 2005.
As an additional curiosity, decades later the animated series Family Guy will make its own tribute to the Star Wars saga, appropriating the name of Blue Harvest. After all, no one was using it.
The code names of the Star Wars sequels and prequels
Believe it or not, during the next two decades after the release of Return of the Jedi there were no main films Star Wars. There were animated series, spin-offs starring the Ewoks and even a display worthy of a movie (but without a movie) with Shadows of the Empire. That said, when Lucas saw that technology had advanced enough to continue shaping his vision, he renamed the classic trilogy to become episodes 4, 5, and 6 of his saga. The big plan? Start doing the first three.
Lucas wanted each and every one of the titles of the new films to reflect the new names of the originals, so that if Star Wars became A new hopehis reply would be The Phantom Menace. That said, before he had that idea tied up in his draft he simply put “The Beginning”, which translates as “the beginning”.
As Lucas was documenting the filming, the trick of filming under a false title, as in Blue Harvest, was going to be of little use to them. However, even in those, special measures were taken to prevent illegal copies during the distribution of the film rolls, so that the labels on the cans said “The Doll House”.
However, when talking about the prequel trilogy we are already at the turn of the millennium (the transition from 1999 to 2000) and from this Lucasfilm learned that new fans, those who were already using the Internet, had begun to Keep in mind the provisional names of the films. Well, that and they hadn’t liked the character of Jar Jar Binks.
So, as a greeting to all the curious, and to mislead the plot and direction of the new film, Lucas originally titled Attack of the clones as “Star Wars: Episode II, Jar Jar’s Great Adventure”. Literally, “Star Wars: Episode II: Jar Jar’s Big Adventure.”
What began as a kind of way to deal with projects that take shape as they are being made ended up becoming a kind of tradition, so that to date all the big Star Wars films have had a false or provisional title of face the gallery. And not only that, in the current era the actors themselves have shared these titles on their social networks.
A very curious example is that of Star Wars: The Force Awakenswhich had as Avco provisional title since the Avco cinema in Westwood, California was where filmmakers JJ Abrams and Greg Gunberg originally saw the first film in the saga in 1977. On the other hand, the name of the next film was Space Bear, and it has its own story behind:
“We were talking about how Luke [Skywalker] He had retired and simply walked away from the world and, for some reason, [parecía] Legends of passion, when Tristan goes into the forest at the end. But then we thought, ‘And then he gets attacked by a bear.’
And then someone said, ‘So Luke is like a space bear.'” “Luke has to find his space bear, and then that became the code name of the movie.”
The funny thing is that on the actors’ chairs and the rest of the material during filming you could read perfectly “Space Bear Episode VIII“, so our secret names were no longer so secret, but part of the Star Wars experience.
All the original (and secret) names from the Star Wars movies
Original Title |
Front page |
Titles in drafts |
Provisional title |
Current name |
---|---|---|---|---|
Star Wars |
|
|
The Star Wars |
Star Wars: A New Hope |
The Empire Strikes Back |
|
|
The Empire Strikes |
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back |
Return of the Jedi |
|
Revenge of the Jedi |
|
Star Wars: Return of the Jedi |
Star Wars: The Phantom Menace |
|
The Doll House (to avoid illegal copies during distribution) |
Star Wars: The Phantom Menace |
|
Star Wars: Attack of the Clones |
|
Episode II |
|
Star Wars: Attack of the Clones |
Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith |
|
Episode III |
The Bridge |
Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith |
Star Wars: The Force Awakens |
|
Episode VII |
Star Wars: The Force Awakens |
|
Rogue One |
|
|
Los Alamos |
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story |
Star Wars: The Last Jedi |
|
Episode 8 |
Space Bear |
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker |
Solo |
|
Red Cup |
Red Cup |
Han Solo: A Star Wars Story |
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker |
|
|
TrIXie |
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker |
The tradition does not end here, mind you. The Mandalorian series was produced under the code name Project Huckleberry and its jump to the big screen with The Mandalorian & Grogu was filmed and produced under the codename Thunder Alley. Possibly in reference to a region of the Star Wars universe that, until now, has only belonged to the non-canon Legends imprint. In any case, we can expect more titles with some mysteries for the future of Star Wars.
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