20 facts you might not know about 'The Phantom Menace'

Lucas was burnt out directing Star Wars so much that he didn’t direct the next two movies in the original trilogy. He had planned for a sequel trilogy, but he nixed those plans before Return of the Jedi had even come out. Lucas was done with Star Wars, but he had a lot of backstory left from writing the first Star Wars script, and so he began to think about prequels. Once he felt CGI was good enough to help him tell the story, he decided to get back in the swing of things.

The Phantom Menace would hit theaters in 1999. The first news story about Lucas working on Star Wars prequels came out in…1993. This was when he began outlining his story, and he would start writing the script in 1994.

Fortunately for Lucas, he held on to the 15-page outline he had written for Star Wars all the way back in 1976. This outline included information on character backstories and events that had happened before the original trilogy. He used some of the details from this outline, but one key difference is that he lowered Anakin’s age from 12 to nine.

The Phantom Menace is an intriguing, if opaque, title. For most of the production, though, the movie had a much simple title. Originally, Lucas called it “The Beginning.”

It had been well over a decade since Lucas helmed a Star Wars movie. Once he started writing the film, he asked Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard, and Robert Zemeckis to direct. They all told him the same thing, which was that he should just direct it himself.

Fifty actors were considered for the role of young Obi-Wan Kenobi. One of the primary things they were looking for was an actor who looked like a young Alec Guinness. Ewan McGregor got the role, and then he worked with a vocal coach to sound more like Guinness.

Natalie Portman is a known name now, but it was not easy for her to get the role of Amidala. Over 200 actors were considered for the role. Portman won out, even though she didn’t know much about Star Wars, thanks to Lucas liking her performances in Leon: The Professional and Beautiful Girls.

For much of The Phantom Menace, Queen Amidala uses her handmaiden Sabe as her decoy. At the time, she was an unknown, and her role was not significant, but Sabe is played by Keira Knightley. It was only her third film, and her name was misspelled as “Kiera” in the credits.

Ian McDiarmid took over the role of the Emperor in Return of the Jedi. He is back in The Phantom Menace as Senator Palpatine, the man who would become the Emperor. McDiarmid admitted to being surprised that he was brought back, given that 16 years had passed since Return of the Jedi, but he was now playing a younger version of the same character.

You know who really wanted to play Jar Jar? Michael Jackson. Yes, that Michael Jackson. He approached Lucas about it, but he also wanted to play Jar Jar in prosthetics. Lucas had decided the character would be CGI, so he said no. Ahmed Best ended up in the role.

As the story goes, David Prowse — the guy in the Darth Vader suit — had assumed his voice would be used for the performance as well. However, he had a rural English accent, so James Earl Jones was brought in instead. Ray Park played Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace, and he had the necessary martial arts skills. After the filming was done, though, Park’s voice was considered wrong for the role, so his voice was dubbed over by Peter Serafinowicz in post-production.

Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola were longtime friends, and Coppola’s daughter, Sophia, considered Lucas like an “uncle.” At the time Lucas was filming, Sophia was preparing to film her first movie, The Virgin Suicides. She asked Lucas if she could come to set and watch the production, and while doing so, she took a small role as one of Amidala’s handmaidens.

It became a repeated story that Dern made “pew” sounds while shooting her gun during the filming of The Last Jedi. She’s not the first acclaimed actor to get a little overzealous about filming a Star Wars movie. While playing Obi-Wan, McGregor would make light saber noises whenever he was dueling.

Lucas went all-in on CGI with The Phantom Menace, including having entirely CGI characters in the film. Best had originally been hired to do the motion capture for Jar Jar based on his work on stage in Stomp. However, he was then asked to voice the character as well. Best was on set in a latex suit with a headpiece to serve as a reference for the other actors. Then, he was completely replaced by the CGI Jar Jar.

As previous Star Wars movies had done, The Phantom Menace was filmed at studios in the United Kingdom and the deserts of Tunisia. Then, there was the Naboo Palace. For that, they went to the Caserta Palace in Caserta, Italy, and took it over for four days.

While filming in Tunisia, a severe sandstorm destroyed several sets. It would be two days before they could begin filming again. However, Lucas was pretty calm about the whole thing. He took it as a positive sign, given that the same thing had happened on Star Wars.

People were understandably hyped for the first new Star Wars movie in over a decade. How hyped? The trailer for The Phantom Menace debuted on select screens showing Meet Joe Black. Reportedly, people were buying tickets to Meet Joe Black to watch the trailer for The Phantom Menace, and then leaving before the movie. To try and keep this from happening, some theaters started showing the trailer again at the end of the movie.

The Phantom Menace has a 52 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a mark well below the first three films. Many fans were critical as well. In particular, Jake Lloyd’s performance as Anakin and the character of Jar Jar Binks were roundly panned. Nevertheless, fans had come out in drove to see the movie. It made $28 million on its opening day, a new record. When all was said and done, it had made $924.3 million worldwide, second only to Titanic.

The Phantom Menace was largely despised in terms of storytelling and performance, but the technical achievement was still noted. It received three nominations from the Academy Awards. They were for Best Sound, Best Sound Effects Editing, and Best Visual Effects. It lost all three to The Matrix. On the other hand, it received seven Razzie nominations.

Not one to avoid a chance to tap into the pop culture zeitgeist, “Weird Al” Yankovic decided to write a song spoofing The Phantom Menace. His song, “The Saga Begins,” is a parody of “American Pie” that is told from the point of view of Obi-Wan. Yankovic wrote the song from internet spoilers, since he couldn’t get an advanced screening. Wanting to ensure accuracy, Yankovic did shell out for a charity screening. Apparently, the spoilers had been so accurate that he only had to make a couple changes. Evidently, both Don McLean and Lucas were fans.