1. George Lucas ghost-directed 'Return of the Jedi'
When you first watched "Return of the Jedi," you may have noticed it’s not as good as "Empire Strikes Back." You may also have noticed that neither credits George Lucas as its director. That’s because Lucas didn’t feel like taking on the workload of directing the sequels, so instead hired Irvin Kershner for "Empire." But then, after "Empire" was released to rave reviews and poor, sweet Richard Marquand was hired to direct "Jedi," Lucas suddenly decided he wouldn’t mind that workload. There’s a myth that it was Lucas who directed "Jedi," but that isn’t technically true (true in every other sense though).
He barged in on set and took over from Marquand, forcing him to shoot a “master shot” of every scene, making Marquand essentially redundant as Lucas could then edit it however the hell he wanted.
2. George Lucas had stories for twelve 'Star Wars' films before he even wrote one
There are many versions of this story. Some say he outlined the six he eventually made (Episodes I-VI), envisioned it as one epic Film before realising it was way too long and splitting it into six parts, then deciding to make the fourth one first for God knows what reason, although a handwritten note to the contrary suggests that Lucas’ original vision had "A New Hope" as Episode VI, throwing the whole trilogy system out of whack.
The most reliable and least weird version has Lucas developing the larger story over a long period of time. He was coming up with ideas for sequels and prequels before he wrote "A New Hope," and developed it fully for years afterward.
3. Carrie Fisher did coke on the set of 'Star Wars'
It’s no secret that Carrie Fisher is an ex-drug addict.
In fact, when they filmed "The Blues Brothers," cocaine vacuum John Belushi told Fisher that she was doing too much. This led to a myth fabricated by "Star Wars" fans that one particularly long fingernail that is visible on Leia’s hand in the films was used to stash cocaine during the shoot, but Fisher herself, now fully recovered, denies the rumors.
Ever the cool, candid chick, she said, “I never used my fingernail for drugs. I used dollars or tiny spoons like any other respectable former drug addict.”
4. George Lucas shot 'Blue Harvest' and never released it
By the time "Jedi" was shot, the "Star Wars" fan base was huge, and they were all desperate to get on the set of the latest instalment to see the cast at work, so the crew couldn’t go around waving big “New "Star Wars" movie, shooting here!” signs. Instead, they pretended they were making a horror film called "Blue Harvest," with the tagline “Horror Beyond Imagination.” This was a ground-breaking idea and has since become commonplace for Hollywood blockbusters. Rumour has it that Lucas actually shot "Blue Harvest." While it’s certainly a mysterious idea to think that George Lucas has a secret film reel containing “Horror Beyond Imagination” locked up in a vault somewhere on Skywalker Ranch, my guess is that this is just a myth, as an unreleased film would mean Lucas squandered an opportunity to make money, and that doesn’t sound much like Lucas.
5. Marcia Lucas saved 'Star Wars' from her husband’s terrible storytelling
Every story decision that made "Star Wars" one of the best-told stories of all time came not from credited writer George Lucas, but actually from his wife Marcia. The iconic Death Star trench run, down to Han returning to save Luke at the last second (that’s called character development, George), conflict in the Death Star scene – the way Lucas had originally written it, infiltrating and escaping the Death Star was easy – the death of Obi-Wan, perhaps the most shocking and emotional moment in the whole film, keeping the scene where Chewbacca scares off the little mouse droid: these were all Marcia’s ideas. Basically, George wrote a movie without soul, and Marcia gave it the soul it needed to truly become "Star Wars." And yet the history books celebrate George and forget Marcia.
