95 Fun Facts About The Phantom Menace

Which actor plays Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn?

Liam Neeson got the part although Lucas had first pictured an American; Lucas called him a master actor with the strength the character demands.

Which child actor plays nine-year-old Anakin Skywalker?

Jake Lloyd won the part after a huge search; producer Rick McCallum said he was smart, mischievous and loved anything mechanical, just like Anakin.

Which organisation blockades the planet Naboo at the start of The Phantom Menace?

The Trade Federation's viceroy, Nute Gunray, takes secret orders from Darth Sidious, who tells him to kill the Jedi sent to negotiate.

What is the name of the outcast Qui-Gon rescues on Naboo during the invasion?

Jar Jar Binks was played by a performer casting director Robin Gurland spotted in the stage show Stomp and pulled into an audition.

Why do Qui-Gon and the Queen's party have to land on Tatooine?

Their hyperdrive is damaged, and the local junk dealer refuses Republic credits for a new part, so Qui-Gon turns to a podrace bet.

Who is the junk dealer who owns Anakin and his mother as slaves?

Watto shrugs off Qui-Gon's Jedi mind trick; as a Toydarian, he says, tricks don't work on him, only money does.

Who is Anakin's main rival in the Boonta Eve podrace?

Sebulba secretly damaged one of Anakin's engines before the start, and the sabotage later left the boy's pod trailing smoke.

What does Anakin win from Qui-Gon's podrace bet?

His freedom was part of the bet, but his owner refused to include Anakin's mother, so Shmi stayed behind as a slave.

Who plays Padmé Amidala, the young Queen of Naboo?

Natalie Portman got the part because Lucas wanted someone young and strong, along the lines of Leia, who turns out to be Padmé's daughter.

Which future star plays Sabé, the handmaiden who serves as the Queen's decoy?

Keira Knightley was chosen for her close likeness to the Queen's actress; even their mothers reportedly had trouble telling the two apart on set.

Which director's daughter appears in The Phantom Menace as Saché, one of Queen Amidala's handmaidens?

Sofia Coppola, daughter of Lucas's American Zoetrope co-founder Francis Ford Coppola, drew a Razzie nomination for Worst Supporting Actress for the cameo.

Ewan McGregor worked on his voice to match which actor's older Obi-Wan?

Alec Guinness played the older Obi-Wan, so McGregor studied Guinness's early films to play him as a young man.

Which pop star reportedly wanted a Phantom Menace role but in prosthetic makeup, while Lucas wanted CGI?

Michael Jackson's interest rests on the account of the actor who got the part, who says Lucas introduced them backstage at Wembley.

Which rapper reportedly told a colleague he was supposed to read for a Jedi role in The Phantom Menace?

Tupac Shakur said he had to read for Lucas, engineer Rick Clifford recalled, but he was killed in 1996, nine months before filming began.

Which member of the Jedi Council was played by Samuel L. Jackson?

Mace Windu went to Jackson after he told an interviewer he'd love to be in the new Star Wars film and casting director Robin Gurland heard about it.

Concept artist Iain McCaig drew on his childhood fear of which character to design Darth Maul's face?

Bozo the Clown had terrified him as a kid, so after Lucas rejected his first nightmare design, McCaig drew his own face as a scary clown.

Which Return of the Jedi actor was surprised to be asked back to play Palpatine in the prequels?

Ian McDiarmid had assumed Lucas would cast a much younger actor, but since makeup had aged him as the Emperor, he was the right age to play Palpatine.

Which British actor plays Supreme Chancellor Valorum, leader of the Galactic Republic?

Terence Stamp's Valorum is ousted when Amidala calls a vote of no confidence, which lets Palpatine win the chancellorship.

Which British actor voices Boss Nass, the leader of the Gungans?

Brian Blessed has said he came over too strong for another part, but Lucas still brought him in to play the Gungan leader.

Which British actress, then still a drama student, appeared as an uncredited extra in The Phantom Menace?

Sally Hawkins played a spectator in a huge crowd scene at the Gungan parade, but has said she never knew if she made the final cut.

What was Episode I's working title through production, before it became The Phantom Menace?

The Beginning lived on as the title of the feature-length making-of documentary released on the 2001 DVD.

Which trio told Lucas to direct Episode I?

Ron Howard recalled that Robert Zemeckis, Steven Spielberg and he all told Lucas to do it, saying following that act would have been too daunting.

At which English studio was most of The Phantom Menace shot in 1997?

Leavesden had been a Rolls-Royce aircraft engine factory, and its vast floor space was converted into the stages that housed the production's sets.

The interiors of Theed's palace on Naboo were filmed at which real-world location?

After scouting other countries, Lucas picked the Royal Palace at Caserta, Italy, for its beauty, and it played Theed's palace again in Attack of the Clones.

What wrecked many of the Tatooine sets one night while The Phantom Menace was filming in Tunisia?

A sandstorm scattered costumes and twisted sets overnight, yet the crew made repairs so quickly that filming stayed on schedule.

Roughly how many shots in The Phantom Menace used digital effects work?

Nearly 2,000 effects shots (about 1,950) meant so much work that three ILM supervisors divided it.

To research podracer designs, The Phantom Menace's effects crew scavenged engines from what kind of aircraft?

Boeing 747 engines came from the world's largest jet junkyard, near Phoenix, and full-size podracer replicas were later sent out to the Tunisian desert.

Which technique did David Dozoretz's team apply to The Phantom Menace's podrace?

Digital pre-visualization, 3D animated storyboards, let the team work out the race's action before ILM built the final shots.

Which 1959 epic does the podrace sequence deliberately echo?

Anakin's rivalry with his podrace nemesis mirrors Ben-Hur and Messala, and the closing parade resembles the film's Roman triumph.

Which John Williams choral track plays during the three-way lightsaber fight in The Phantom Menace?

Williams said Duel of the Fates grew from his feeling that something ritualistic, pagan and antique would suit the film's closing sword fight.

In November 1998, fans paid full price for which Adam Sandler comedy just to see the first Phantom Menace teaser?

The Waterboy was one of several films showing the teaser, and so many fans walked out after it that some theatres replayed it once the movie ended.

What does the 1998 teaser poster for The Phantom Menace show?

Anakin's shadow forming Darth Vader's silhouette sold the teaser, but for the release poster Lucas chose a drawn design, and Drew Struzan illustrated it.

Before The Phantom Menace opened, a consulting firm estimated how many US employees would skip work to see it?

Challenger, Gray & Christmas forecast about 2.2 million absences, and some companies agreed to close that day.

Which film alone out-grossed The Phantom Menace worldwide after its original run?

Only Titanic stayed ahead, as The Phantom Menace narrowly pushed Jurassic Park down to third place on the worldwide chart.

Which film beat The Phantom Menace to all three of its Academy Award nominations?

The Matrix swept Sound, Sound Effects Editing and Visual Effects, so the year's highest-grossing film left the Oscars with nothing.

Who won The Phantom Menace's only Golden Raspberry Award, as Worst Supporting Actor?

Ahmed Best faced a fierce backlash over the role, yet he later returned to Star Wars as the Jedi Master Kelleran Beq.

Which 'American Pie' parody retold The Phantom Menace's plot from Obi-Wan's point of view?

Weird Al Yankovic wrote "The Saga Begins" before seeing the film, piecing its plot together from internet leaks.

Which 1999 South Park episode parodied a Phantom Menace character through a species of loud, annoying creatures?

"Jakovasaurs" also mocks conservation: officials try to save the near-extinct creatures until the town decides not every species is worth saving.

The Phantom Menace launched which long-running licensed toy line?

Lego Star Wars was unveiled at the 1999 Toy Fair as a Phantom Menace tie-in, yet some of its first sets, like Luke's Landspeeder, came from the original films.

On The Phantom Menace's 2001 DVD, which code typed on the options menu unlocks a reel of outtakes?

The code 1-1-3-8 nods to THX 1138, George Lucas's first feature film as director.

In The Phantom Menace's 2011 Blu-ray release, what was replaced with a CGI model to match the other prequels?

The Yoda puppet was swapped out because Lucas had tried to make Yoda digital in 1999 but couldn't get the technology to work.

What is Nute Gunray's accent modelled on?

Thai was chosen after Lucas and producer Rick McCallum listened to Nute Gunray's lines voiced in accents from many countries.

Which Swedish actress plays Anakin's mother Shmi Skywalker?

Pernilla August, a Bergman regular, was nervous playing Shmi because it was her first acting work in English.

In The Phantom Menace, who voices Darth Maul, the Sith apprentice played on screen by Ray Park?

Peter Serafinowicz also recorded Maul's lines for Solo: A Star Wars Story, but was replaced there by Sam Witwer.

Which 2012 release pushed The Phantom Menace past $1 billion worldwide?

The 3D release was meant to lead a series, but Lucasfilm postponed the Episode II and III 3D releases to focus on Episode VII.

Which 1980s screen alien's species appears among The Phantom Menace's background characters as a nod between directors?

E.T. and his kind turn up as background characters, a cameo George Lucas added at a fellow director's suggestion. E.T.'s own 1982 film was once the highest-grossing ever made.

George Lucas likened The Phantom Menace's embattled Supreme Chancellor Valorum to which real American president?

Bill Clinton was Lucas's comparison: a good man, he said, but a beleaguered one. Clinton was in his second White House term when the film opened in 1999.

In The Phantom Menace, which famous droid turns out to have been built by the young Anakin Skywalker?

C-3PO is still unfinished here, with no metal covering over his wiring. A puppeteer dressed to match the background worked the skeletal figure and was erased from the film afterwards.

Nathan, the son of which original Star Wars trilogy lead, has a cameo in The Phantom Menace as a Naboo royal guard?

Mark Hamill played Luke Skywalker, the boy Anakin's future son, so a real-life Skywalker heir stands guard in the prequel.

The Phantom Menace was the first film George Lucas had directed himself since which earlier hit?

Star Wars (1977) was the last film he had directed, 22 years earlier. He handed the two sequels to Irvin Kershner and Richard Marquand and stayed on as executive producer.

Which original trilogy villain opens the Boonta Eve podrace in The Phantom Menace and then sleeps through its finish?

Jabba the Hutt launches the race, then nods off before the winner crosses the line. The end credits cheekily list the computer-generated gangster as playing himself.

George Lucas called the midi-chlorians introduced in The Phantom Menace a loose depiction of which real cell structures?

Mitochondria, the power plants of living cells, were his model, drawn from the theory of symbiogenesis. In the film, Qui-Gon Jinn says midi-chlorians are what let a person sense the Force.

In The Phantom Menace, what does Shmi tell Qui-Gon about how her son Anakin came to be born?

There was no father, Shmi says, which helps convince Qui-Gon that the boy is the Chosen One of Jedi prophecy. The virgin birth is one of the film's several Christian echoes.

George Lucas described The Phantom Menace's spindly battle droids as predecessors of which original trilogy fighters?

Stormtroopers were the model, and designer Doug Chiang based the droids on them, stretched into the elongated shapes of African tribal art.

Weeks after The Phantom Menace became America's fastest-selling DVD in 2001, which animated film took the record?

Shrek sold 2.5 million copies in its first three days, ending a reign of less than a month. The Phantom Menace had itself only just taken the record from The Mummy Returns.

Which unusual weapon does the Sith apprentice Darth Maul ignite against two Jedi at the climax of The Phantom Menace?

A double-bladed lightsaber let Maul take on two opponents at once, a sight new to the films in 1999. A similar weapon turns up again in The Rise of Skywalker.

Which city-covered planet, first named in a Timothy Zahn novel, is the Republic's capital in The Phantom Menace?

Coruscant was first described in Zahn's 1991 novel Heir to the Empire, and the films adopted the name. George Lucas's early drafts had made Alderaan the galaxy's capital city-planet.

Which sequel to The Phantom Menace picks up the story a decade later, with Anakin Skywalker now a grown apprentice?

Attack of the Clones followed in 2002 and jumps ten years ahead. Its plot pulls Anakin back to Tatooine in a vain attempt to rescue the mother he left behind.

Which actor took over from The Phantom Menace's child star as the grown-up Anakin Skywalker in the two sequels?

Hayden Christensen, a Canadian then known mostly for television, was chosen by George Lucas after the casting director had looked at about 1,500 candidates.

In The Phantom Menace, which rank does Obi-Wan Kenobi hold as the apprentice of Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn?

Padawan is the Jedi term for an apprentice paired with a single master. By the end of the film Obi-Wan has been made a Jedi Knight and has taken on an apprentice of his own.

In The Phantom Menace, Naboo's Senator Palpatine secretly directs the invasion of his own planet under which Sith name?

Darth Sidious is the phantom menace of the title: George Lucas said it refers to Palpatine hiding an evil Sith Lord behind the face of a well-meaning public servant.

How does Obi-Wan Kenobi finally defeat Darth Maul in the closing fight of The Phantom Menace?

By cutting him in half at the waist, Obi-Wan seemed to finish Maul for good as the body fell down a shaft. The animated series The Clone Wars later brought him back.

In The Phantom Menace, Qui-Gon believes Anakin is the prophesied Chosen One, destined to do what?

Bring balance to the Force is the prophecy's promise, and Qui-Gon defies the Jedi Council over it. The films only make good on the prophecy in Return of the Jedi.

Why does the Jedi Council at first refuse to let Anakin Skywalker be trained in The Phantom Menace?

He is too old, the Council rules, judging that his age leaves him vulnerable to the dark side. Qui-Gon Jinn vows to train the boy anyway.

In The Phantom Menace, what does Queen Amidala demand in the Galactic Senate at Senator Palpatine's urging?

A vote of no confidence in Chancellor Valorum is exactly what Palpatine wants from her: it clears the way for his own election to the top job by the end of the film.

Which Muppets performer returned as the voice of Yoda in The Phantom Menace while finishing his own comedy In & Out?

Frank Oz, the man behind Miss Piggy and Fozzie Bear, had directed In & Out himself, so George Lucas fitted Yoda's filming around his schedule.

In The Phantom Menace, John Williams wove hints of which Empire Strikes Back piece into young Anakin's gentle theme?

The Imperial March, the Empire's menacing signature tune, flickers inside the boy's innocent melody to foreshadow the man he becomes. Williams wanted the rest of the theme to carry a child's innocence.

Which Julia Roberts romantic comedy opened days after The Phantom Menace and finished second to it at the box office?

Notting Hill was one of the few films any studio dared to release near it. DreamWorks tried The Love Letter the same week, and it flopped.

Which Mike Myers comedy ended The Phantom Menace's three-week run at the top of the US box office?

The Spy Who Shagged Me, the second Austin Powers film, took over in the fourth weekend. The Phantom Menace still stayed in the American top ten for eleven weeks.

In The Phantom Menace, what does Anakin accidentally trigger that flies his starfighter into the battle above Naboo?

The autopilot flies him straight to the droid control ship, which he then destroys from the inside by accident. With it gone, the whole invading droid army shuts down.

Denis Lawson, uncle of The Phantom Menace star Ewan McGregor, played which X-wing pilot in the original trilogy?

Wedge Antilles flies in all three original films. Lawson's nephew grew up to play the young Obi-Wan Kenobi, and the uncle directed him on the London stage shortly before the film opened.

In the viral video Star Wars Kid, a teenager copies Darth Maul's Phantom Menace moves by swinging which object?

A golf ball retriever was his stand-in for Maul's weapon. Ghyslain Raza filmed himself in 2002, and the clip reached the internet the following April.

The wingbeats of Anakin's Toydarian owner in The Phantom Menace are a looped recording of which everyday object?

An umbrella being opened and closed, recorded by sound designer Ben Burtt and looped, gives the junk dealer his flutter. Burtt also edited the film's action sequences.

For The Phantom Menace's podrace wrecks, George Lucas told the effects crew to study crashes from which motorsport?

Formula 1 crashes, where sheer kinetic energy makes the cars spin and break apart, were the reference. The team wrote dedicated software just to shatter the pod engines.

Which Return of the Jedi Ewok actor plays four small roles in The Phantom Menace, including Yoda in walking shots?

Warwick Davis also turns up as Anakin's Rodian friend Wald, a gambler at the podrace and a street trader. He had joined Return of the Jedi at 11, after his grandmother heard a radio appeal.

Which Chicago Sun-Times critic defended The Phantom Menace with three and a half stars out of four?

Roger Ebert called it an astonishing achievement in imaginative filmmaking, and argued that some thin characters were the price of opening a new trilogy.

For The Phantom Menace's Jedi fighting style, Nick Gillard mixed kendo with tree-chopping and swings from which sport?

Tennis swings joined kendo and other sword schools in the stunt coordinator's new style. His theory was that Jedi, armed only at short range, would have mastered every way of swinging a blade.

Which future star of The Wire appears in The Phantom Menace as a Naboo palace guard named Jerus Jannick?

Dominic West was three years away from playing Baltimore detective Jimmy McNulty. The Sheffield-born actor has only a small part among the Queen's guards.

Where in London did John Williams record The Phantom Menace's score with the London Symphony Orchestra?

Abbey Road Studios, where the Beatles made most of their records, hosted the sessions for a week in February 1999. It was Williams's first Star Wars score in over 16 years.

The choir over The Phantom Menace's final lightsaber fight sings a Welsh poem translated into which ancient language?

Sanskrit carries lines from Cad Goddeu, the Battle of the Trees. John Williams rearranged the syllables by ear, so the words the choir sings no longer hold their meaning.

The Phantom Menace was the last Star Wars film shot mainly on 35mm film until which later release?

The Force Awakens went back to celluloid 16 years later. In between, the next two prequels were shot on high-definition digital video, which this film had tested in a few scenes.

Which sequence is the only one in The Phantom Menace with no digital alteration at all?

The Jedi being gassed, early in the film, is the lone untouched sequence. Everything else took so much effects work that three supervisors had to split the load.

Why did the actress who plays Queen Amidala miss the 1999 premiere of The Phantom Menace?

She had school finals to study for in her senior year of high school. She graduated that year and went on to Harvard, where she earned a psychology degree.

Which royal attended The Phantom Menace's British premiere, a charity Royal Film Performance in Leicester Square?

Prince Charles attended the screening at the Odeon Leicester Square in July 1999, and the evening raised £225,000 for the Film & TV Charity.

In which American city was the first Star Wars Celebration held, three weeks before The Phantom Menace opened?

Denver got the 1999 gathering because the official fan club was based there. It was held at an air and space museum, with a full-scale model of Anakin's podracer on show.

Fans bought tickets to which video-game adaptation just to watch the second Phantom Menace trailer beforehand?

Wing Commander opened two months ahead of the film with the new trailer attached, and many fans paid full admission only to see it. A bootleg copy was on the internet the same day.

Which Phantom Menace effects supervisor, seen briefly as a fighter pilot, co-created Adobe Photoshop with his brother?

John Knoll oversaw the podrace and the space battle for the film. He and his brother Thomas later received a Scientific and Engineering Academy Award for creating the software.

Which poster artist, known for Indiana Jones and Back to the Future, painted The Phantom Menace's theatrical one-sheet?

Drew Struzan had already painted the 1997 Special Edition posters. Lucasfilm's contracts made his illustration the only artwork foreign distributors were allowed to use.

Which Whose Line Is It Anyway? comedian voices one head of the two-headed podrace announcer in The Phantom Menace?

Greg Proops voices Fode, with fellow comic Scott Capurro as Beed. The pair were filmed in make-up and blue bodysuits before the crew rebuilt the alien entirely by computer.

Which actor plays both the Neimoidian viceroy Nute Gunray and Jedi Master Ki-Adi-Mundi in The Phantom Menace?

Silas Carson got the viceroy role because another actor found the hot, heavy costume too uncomfortable. He had first auditioned to play a co-pilot seen in the opening scene.

Darth Maul, The Phantom Menace's horned Sith apprentice from Dathomir, belongs to which species?

Zabrak is the species, and the red and black pattern on his face is a tattoo. Its designer said the lines follow the muscles that lie under the skin of a human face.

What is the name of Darth Maul's personal starship in The Phantom Menace, also known as the Sith Infiltrator?

Scimitar is a heavily modified Star Courier. Bloodfin, an easy name to confuse with it, belongs to the speeder bike Maul also rides.

Which Glasgow-born costume designer led the team that made over 1,000 costumes for The Phantom Menace?

Trisha Biggar borrowed from the fashions of Japan, Mongolia and Tibet for the royal wardrobe. George Lucas had decided the Queen would wear a different outfit every time she appeared.

Outside which Tunisian city did The Phantom Menace's crew build the Tatooine settlement of Mos Espa?

Tozeur lent its desert outskirts to the set, while the planet itself is named after another southern Tunisian town, Tataouine. George Lucas adapted that name while scouting locations in the 1970s.

Which Naboo officer, played by Hugh Quarshie, is Queen Amidala's head of security in The Phantom Menace?

Captain Panaka runs the Queen's security at Theed Palace. Quarshie, who took the part as a good career move, later spent nearly two decades in the BBC medical drama Holby City.