Hidden Details Star Wars Snuck Right By You

The Star Wars movies are some of the biggest blockbusters of all time, due in no small part to a finely woven storytelling canvas that helped spawn a slew of novels and comic books long before the phrase "extended universe" became the hippest thing in Hollywood. Here are just a few of the many hidden details fans have spotted in the films along the way. 

Watching the original Star Wars trilogy, it was easy to believe that the Millennium Falcon was a one-of-a-kind spaceship. After all, while we saw plenty of X-wings and TIE fighters zipping through space, we never got a look at anything like another Falcon. But the truth is that Han Solo's beloved freighter was just one of many in the Corellian YT-1300 line, and to prove it, George Lucas slipped in several of them in the background during the prequels—including a brief shot of the Falcon herself, spotted docking at Coruscant long before Solo claimed ownership from Lando Calrissian.

Officially, Star Wars fans didn't get their first look at Boba Fett with his helmet off until the second prequel, Attack of the Clones. But the guy who played Fett in the original films, Jeremy Bulloch, actually showed his face in The Empire Strikes Back. When another actor failed to show up for filming during the shoot, Bulloch stepped in to play an Imperial officer who drags Leia away while she's trying to warn Luke about Vader's trap in Bespin. Years later, Bulloch returned for another non-Fett cameo, playing the pilot who delivers Obi-Wan Kenobi, Bail Organa, and Yoda to Coruscant in Revenge of the Sith.

Hardcore Star Wars fans know about the goof-up that made it into the final cut of A New Hope, in which a Stormtrooper bumps his helmet on a door while trying to enter a room. Years later, George Lucas paid homage to the mistake when he had the character of Jango Fett—whose DNA was used to create the cloned Stormtrooper army—whack his head on the door as he climbs into his ship.

George Lucas resisted the temptation to go Hitchcock during the original Star Wars movies and make cameo appearances, but he did allow himself a few indulgences during the prequels. His son and daughter appear in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. That's Jett Lucas you see in the library in Clones, and again whooping clone troopers when the Jedi younglings are attacked during Sith. Lucas himself appears alongside his daughter Katie in the latter film. The character Lucas plays, the blue-skinned Baron Notluwiski Papanoida, was a regular in the animated Clone Wars series.

George Lucas dreamed up the Star Wars galaxy, but the iconic designs that entranced generations of moviegoers came from designer Ralph McQuarrie, whose concept art introduced a number of key elements (including Darth Vader's breathing mask) and ultimately were largely responsible for helping Lucas land a distribution deal with 20th Century Fox. McQuarrie's presence is felt throughout the Star Wars saga, but he actually appears in person during a scene in Empire Strikes Back, during which he can be briefly spotted as a Rebel officer walking through the base on Hoth.

R2-KT, a pink version of R2-D2, was originally a fan community project designed to help lift the spirits of Katie Johnson, a young Star Wars lover who'd been diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. Dreamed up by her dad as a way of giving Katie a bit of comfort during her final days, the droid received her official Star Wars debut during The Force Awakens, making a trio of brief appearances during scenes set on the Resistance base.