50 Fun Facts About Star Wars: the Force Awakens

Which general leads the Resistance while searching for her missing twin brother?

Carrie Fisher agreed to return because she was impressed by the pitch for the new trilogy.

How many years after Return of the Jedi is The Force Awakens set?

The First Order has risen from the ashes of the Empire, and Luke has vanished.

On which desert planet does the film's story begin?

Its wrecked Star Destroyers, where Rey scavenges, were shot in the Liwa Oasis desert of Abu Dhabi.

What is Finn's stormtrooper designation before Poe gives him a name?

2187 is a long-running Star Wars in-joke: it was the princess's cell number on the Death Star in the original film.

What kind of vehicle do Finn and Poe steal to escape the First Order?

They are shot down over Jakku, and Finn assumes Poe died in the crash after finding only his jacket.

Which ship do Rey, Finn and BB-8 steal to escape Jakku?

Rey dismisses it as garbage before they board it; Han and his co-pilot reclaim it minutes later.

What is Starkiller Base?

It draws power from a star and wipes out the New Republic's capital and its neighbouring worlds in one shot.

Which planetary group, home to the New Republic capital, does Starkiller Base destroy?

Its destruction leaves the Resistance without any government backing for the rest of the trilogy.

On which forest planet does Maz Kanata keep her castle?

Landscape shots for the planet were filmed in England's Lake District, and Puzzlewood in the Forest of Dean stood in for its woods.

Whose lightsaber does Rey find in Maz Kanata's vault?

Touching it triggers her visions, including the memory of being left behind on Jakku as a child.

Who plays Maz Kanata?

She had also met with Abrams about the female lead before landing the motion-capture role of the centuries-old alien.

What is Kylo Ren's birth name?

Han uses it when he confronts his son on the bridge inside Starkiller Base.

Who plays Kylo Ren?

Eddie Redmayne and Joel Kinnaman also tested for the part; Driver was hesitant about big movies but liked the character's complications.

Who shoots and wounds Kylo Ren immediately after Han's death?

The bowcaster wound is why Ren is bleeding and unsteady during the lightsaber duel in the snow.

What part of Starkiller Base does the Resistance target to destroy it?

Poe's X-wings hit it after explosives planted inside blow a hole in the structure.

Which droid holds the missing piece of the map to Luke Skywalker?

He wakes from a long dormancy at the end of the film and completes the map that BB-8 has been carrying.

On which planet does Rey finally find Luke Skywalker?

The clifftop scenes were shot on Skellig Michael, a rocky island off the coast of County Kerry.

Who plays Rey?

She was cast by February 2014 after open auditions for a role code-named 'Rachel'; Elizabeth Olsen and Olivia Cooke also auditioned.

Whose performance in Attack the Block did Tom Cruise show Abrams, leading to a Star Wars casting?

Boyega dropped out of the Jesse Owens biopic Race to take the role of Finn.

Who plays Poe Dameron?

The character's surname comes from Abrams' assistant, Morgan Dameron, who also appears in the film as a Resistance officer.

Which actor plays Supreme Leader Snoke through motion capture?

John Williams gave the character a theme sung by a 24-voice men's chorus.

Who plays General Hux?

Hux commands Starkiller Base and delivers the film's Nuremberg-style rally speech before it fires.

Which Game of Thrones actress plays Captain Phasma?

Phasma commands the First Order's stormtroopers and, despite the chrome armour, ends up in a trash compactor.

Which two comedians are credited as 'vocal consultants' for BB-8?

On set the droid was a real rolling prop developed by Disney Research and puppeteered by Dave Chapman and Brian Herring.

Which Shaun of the Dead star plays Unkar Plutt, the junk dealer who buys Rey's scavenged parts?

He is unrecognisable under the blobby prosthetics; Warwick Davis is also in the film, as a tavern-dweller in Maz's castle.

Which James Bond actor cameos as a stormtrooper who falls for Rey's mind trick?

Composer Michael Giacchino and Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich are also under stormtrooper helmets in the film.

Carrie Fisher's daughter appears in the film as Lieutenant Connix. What is her name?

She had first auditioned for the role of Rey; her grandmother Debbie Reynolds let slip that she was in the film.

Whose voice was used for Obi-Wan Kenobi's new line in Rey's vision?

Clone Wars voice actor James Arnold Taylor recorded it first, but McGregor replaced him; archival Alec Guinness audio is also in the scene.

Who wrote the film's first screenplay before leaving the project in October 2013?

He had worked eight months and said he needed 18 more; Kasdan and Abrams took over and finished a first draft in six weeks.

Why did the writers decide Luke Skywalker should not appear until the final scene?

Early drafts had him turn up midway through, and Arndt found that audiences would stop caring about the new lead.

Which director was reportedly the top choice before Tomorrowland commitments forced him out?

Matthew Vaughn even left X-Men: Days of Future Past hoping for the job; Ben Affleck and Neill Blomkamp passed.

Who suggested Abrams to Kathleen Kennedy as director?

Abrams was named director in January 2013 with Kasdan and Simon Kinberg as consultants.

What was the film's working title 'for the longest time', according to Lucasfilm's Pablo Hidalgo?

The real title was announced on November 6, 2014, three days after principal photography wrapped.

What role did George Lucas have on The Force Awakens?

He handed over treatments for Episodes VII to IX and later said Disney discarded his ideas, calling the result 'a retro movie'.

Which YouTube star, known for 'What Languages Sound Like To Foreigners', made a fictional language for the film?

She built it by studying languages including Hindi and Gujarati.

Where did principal photography begin in May 2014?

Large sets, a market and a shuttle-like ship were built in the desert, and explosives created a 'blast crater'.

What injured Harrison Ford on set at Pinewood, halting production for two weeks?

Abrams fractured a vertebra trying to lift the door and kept quiet about it for a month; the production company was later fined $1.95 million.

Skellig Michael, where the final scene was shot, lies off the coast of which country?

Filming there took three days in July 2014 with Mark Hamill and the actress playing Rey.

What format was most of the movie shot on?

Cinematographer Daniel Mindel used Kodak 5219 stock, with some sequences in 65 mm IMAX; Panavision built new lenses to mimic the original trilogy's look.

Which Hamilton creator wrote music for the cantina scene with Abrams?

John Williams had told Abrams he did not want to write that scene; Miranda made a joke offer at a Hamilton performance and got the job.

Which conductor led the opening and end title music at John Williams' request?

William Ross conducted most of the rest of the sessions, with Williams attending and taking the baton for the remainder.

Which Force Awakens sequence used stop-motion animation overseen by original Star Wars veteran Phil Tippett?

Kennedy and Abrams pushed practical effects wherever possible to recapture the feel of the original trilogy.

What is missing from the start of the film, for the first time in a live-action Star Wars movie?

Disney distributed the film and, 'for the fans', chose to show only the Lucasfilm logo silently before the titles.

During which broadcast did the final trailer debut in October 2015?

It drew 128 million views in 24 hours, 16 million of them from the football broadcast itself.

What was 'Force Friday'?

It began at 12:01 am with an 18-hour YouTube livestream; Sphero's rolling BB-8 toy was the star product.

What was the film's record-breaking opening weekend gross in the U.S. and Canada?

It beat The Avengers and Jurassic World by 19%, and its opening day was the first ever to top $100 million.

Roughly how much did The Force Awakens gross worldwide?

It was the third film ever to pass $2 billion, and it did so on its 53rd day of release.

In how many days did the film become the highest-grossing film ever in the U.S. and Canada?

It went on to become the first film to pass $800 million and then $900 million domestically, unadjusted for inflation.

Which country was the film's largest market outside the U.S. and Canada?

It took over $180 million there; India was a rare flop, opening third behind two local films.

How many Academy Award nominations did The Force Awakens receive?

Editing, score, sound editing, sound mixing and visual effects; it went home empty-handed.