Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which is also known as Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi, is a 2017 American epic space opera movie written and directed by Rian Johnson. It’s the second installment of the Star Wars sequel trilogy and the eighth main installment of the Star Wars franchise, following Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The movie was produced by Lucasfilm and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. Take a look below for 30 more fun and interesting facts about Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
1. The ensemble cast includes Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Andy Serkis, Lupita Nyong’o, Domhnall Gleeson, Anthony Daniels and Gwendoline Christie in returning roles, with Kelly Marie Tran, Laura Dem and Benicio del Toro joining the cast.
2. The movie features the final film performance by Carrie Fisher, who died in December 2016, and it’s dedicated to her memory.
3. The plot follows Rey as she receives Jedi training from Luke Skywalker, in hopes of turning the ride for the Resistance in the fight against Kylo Ren and the First Order.
4. Star Wars: The Last Jedi grossed over $1.3 billion worldwide, making it the highest grossing movie of 2017, the 7th highest grossing movie ever in North America and the 9th highest grossing movie of all time.
5. The movie is the second highest grossing movie of the Star Wars franchise, and it turned a net profit of over $417 million.
6. Star Wars: The Last Jedi received positive reviews from critics, who praised its ensemble cast, visual effects, musical score, action sequences and emotional weight. Some considered it the best Star Wars movie since The Empire Strikes Back.
7. The movie received four nominations at the 90th Academy Awards, including Best Original Score and Best Visual Effects, as well as two nominations at the 71st British Academy Film Rewards.
8. Mark Hamill and Rian Johnson revealed at a BAFTA screening that Hamill asked to play a CG character, saying that he had done it before. In the movie, he plays the character who puts money inside BB-8 in the Casino scenes.
9. With the passing of Kenny Baker, Anthony Daniels is now the only remaining actor to appear in all the official Star Wars movies.
10. Carrie Fisher was a well-known writer, whose services were often called upon to act as script doctor for other movies. She later began declining such assignments when producers would solicit her story ideas, then hire someone else to actually change the script, and use Fisher’s ideas without paying her. However, director Rian Johnson revealed that Fisher helped with the writing of the script for Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
11. Daisy Ridley took her father to the set in Ireland, where the ending scene of Star Wars: The Force Awakens was about to be recreated. When her father met Mark Hamill, he asked him, “Who do you play, then?”, Ridley admitted that she wasn’t sure if her father was joking.
12. Star Wars: The Last Jedi is the first movie in the series in which Kenny Baker wasn’t involved in the portrayal of R2-D2. Jimmy Vee was given the job, shortly before Baker’s death.
13. General Leia Organa’s Mon Calamari cruiser bears the name “Raddus,” named for the character of Admiral Raddus in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
14. Kelly Marie Tran didn’t tell anyone that she was doing the movie and lied that she was doing an indie film in Canada. At one point, she got some maple syrup to bring back to her parents so they would believe that she was actually in Canada.
15. Ewan McGregor expressed his interest to reprise his role as Obi-Wan Kenobi in the movie. Rian Johnson wanted to include him, but couldn’t find a place in the story to naturally insert the character.
16. Rian Johnson’s original cut of the movie exceeded three hours. Reports say that he cut between 45 and 60 minutes to get the movie down to a more palatable run time.
17. With a running time of 152 minutes, Star Wars: The Last Jedi is the longest movie of the Star Wars saga. The previous record was held by Star wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, with 142 minutes.
18. Star Wars: The Last Jedi is the eighth Star Wars movie to be scored by John Williams.
19. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story director Gareth Edwards makes a short cameo as an entrenched Resistance soldier during the final battle.
20. Carrie Fisher’s dog Gary Fisher appears in the casino. When Rose and Finn are talking, he is visible on the left side of the screen beneath the man in the black fez. Rian Johnson confirmed this after a fan spotted the dog in a production still.
21. According to stunt coordinator Liang Yang, the lightsaber movements Daisy Ridley performed usually take three days to learn. However, Ridley was able to learn them in only one and a half hours.
22. The scene with the “ship” that turns out to be a clothes iron is likely a tribute to “Hardware Wars,” a spoof short made after the original Star Wars was released.
23. The location filming in Ireland was intended to follow on from the dark Skellig ending of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. However, the weather was unseasonably good and shooting took longer than expected.
24. The original burn marks are still visible on Luke Skywalker’s mechanical hand.
25. Star Wars: The Last Jedi was released over 40 years after Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope and marked the 40th anniversary of the Star Wars film franchise.
26. Luke Skywalker refers to a lightsaber as a “laser sword.” The only other character in the saga to do so was Anakin Skywalker in Episode I.
27. The creatures known as Porgs are never actually mentioned by name on screen.
28. When filming, Laura Dern said “pew” every time she shot her blaster. Although not audible, one such instance even made it into the finished movie. It can be noticed in the close-up shot when Holdo is stunning her opponents.
29. Chelsea Hamill, Nathan Hamill, and Griffin Hamill, the children of Mark Hamill, have uncredited appearances as Resistance members.
30. Gwendoline Christie was trained in fighting by swordmaster C.C. Smiff, the same stuntman who had trained her for her fighting scenes in Game of Thrones.
