Star Wars: 10 Bizarre BTS Facts About The Villains – Screen Rant

You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy than in the Star Wars franchise. When one thinks of the franchise, their minds usually go to memories of epic space battles, lightsaber duels, and the vast amount of terrifying villains that inhabit the galaxy far far away.

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Darth Vader, Darth Maul, General Grievous, and even fan-favorite Boba Fett have become just as popular as the likes of Luke Skywalker. That said, there are some rather odd stories behind the large cast of bad guys that reside in George Lucas' epic universe, including some that are bordering on insane.

Matthew Wood's vocal performance as the infamous General Grievous has become an iconic part of the franchise. Originally though, the Separatist warlord was supposed to have a more iconically evil voice. The legendary actor Gary Oldman was approached to play General Grievous. According to representatives of the actor, Oldman provided a vocal audition but backed out due to the film being made outside of the Screen Actors Guild.

In the end, Matthew Wood, who was working in the sound department of Lucasfilm provided The General's iconic voice. While Wood's performance made General Grievous far more threatening, people still wonder what Oldman would have brought to the role.

The visual effects for Jabba The Hutt's insertion into the special edition of A New Hope has had fans tearing their hair out for years. While the novelty of Jabba's deleted scene being put back into the film is amusing, it ruins his reveal in Return of The Jedi,and the CGI involved is laughable.

The original scene showed Jabba as a human criminal portrayed by Irish actor Declan Mulholland. It's an odd scene to watch in hindsight, and ILM was right to reimagine the character when the third film came around.

During the mid-2000s, Lucasfilm assembled a group of phenomenal writers to develop a show about the underworld of the Star Wars universe that was called Star Wars: Underworld. Aptly titled. While the show never came to be, some people did get to look at the scripts produced for the show, including future God of War developer Cory Balrog.

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Balrog, who was going to develop a game based on the series, reminisced in an interview "They made The Emporer a sympathetic figure who was wronged by this f***ing heartless woman. She's this hardcore gangster, and she just totally destroyed him as a person." Well, that certainly would have been an...interesting take on the character.

Speaking of Emperor Palpatine, his involvement in Episode IX has received mixed opinions, as many fans feel his return was shoehorned in. When Colin Trevorrow's original script for the film leaked online, fans were in for a shock when they found out who was originally going to control Kylo Ren.

In the script, Ren would have been contacted by Palpatine from beyond the grave, who would lead him to Tor Vallum. Vallum was supposedly Palpatine's master prior to Darth Plagues and would have served as a sort of anti-Yoda, who would teach Ren more about The Dark Side.

While Darth Maul would gain more complexity when he returned in The Clone Wars,his initial selling point when he popped up in The Phantom Menace was his striking look, as well as his awesome double-bladed saber. Ray Park is often the name that comes up when discussing who played Maul. Alas, that means that Peter Serafinowicz, who provided the voice of the character, always gets the short end of the lightsaber.

In several interviews, Serafinowicz has said that he poorly paid for his work and that George Lucas' direction for the vocal performance was less than stellar. When Serafinowicz inquired as to what Lucas wanted for Maul's voice, Lucas told him to just make him evil. Yeah, thanks, George.

Peter Cushing was a legend. Not only were his performances in several Hammer films phenomenal, but his performance in A New Hope set a high bar for villains in the franchise and helped Grand Moff Tarkin stand out next to Darth Vader.

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Unlike his co-star, the equally legendary Sir Alec Guinness, Cushing loved the film. According to reports from the set, one thing that bugged him was that the boots the costume department gave him were too small, and they didn't have enough time to replace them. Cushing worked through the discomfort when the boots were on camera, but would wear a cozy pair of slippers otherwise.

Whether you love Disney's recent crop of Star Wars flicks or hate them, you can't deny that Adam Driver's performance as Kylo Ren is fantastic. What helped make the performance feel so authentic was that Driver, a method actor, remained in character in between takes, and would sometimes ask to do his own stunts.

During casting for The Force Awakens, several actors auditioned for the role of Kylo Ren, including Fantastic Beasts star Eddie Redmayne. However, in Adam Driver's own words during an interview, when he came along, he simply met with J.J. Abrams and got the part. Driver earned a good deal of fame for his performance, but the way he got the part could be seen as a bit unorthodox.

Sir Christopher Lee's performance as former Jedi Master turned Sith Lord Count Dooku is one of the highlights of the mediocre Attack of The Clones. That said, it wasn't all smooth sailing when it came to the character.

Early on in production, the character was named Countess Dooku and was intended to be female. The character went through several design iterations, but when Sir Christopher Lee was cast, the designs were shelved. Darth Maul was also supposed to be female, with artist Ian McCaig designing Maul as something out of a nightmare, but the design we all know was ultimately chosen.

Boba Fett is possibly the most famous bounty hunter in fiction. Although his screen time in both The Empire Strikes Back and Return of The Jedi is minimal, his popularity with the fans means he will always be recognized as an iconic Star Wars character. Originally conceived as an early design for Darth Vader, the design was then repurposed for a special form of Stormtrooper, and then finally was repurposed as the bounty hunter we all know.

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Fett didn't debut in Empire Strikes Back, however, as his debut actually came in the loathed Holiday Special.Boba Fett, voiced by Don Francks, is actually the best thing about The Holiday Special,and the weapon he uses inspired Dyn Jarren's rifle in The Mandolorian.

Darth Vader's booming voice is as much of a trait of the character as his helmet and chilling breathing sound. Early in the production of A New Hope, Vader's voice was a bit of a question mark. Suit actor David Prowse's thick Scottish accent made people nervous on set, but Lucas knew Prowse's performance was only temporary.

According to James Earl Jones, Lucas considered Orson Welles for the role but ultimately decided against it as he felt Welles' voice would make people think of him and not Vader. Ultimately, Jones was brought in to provide the voice, and history was made.

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Ever since he was a young lad, Seth Rector has had a love for all things that reek of geek. Movies, tv shows, comic books, and video games are what he considers his wheelhouse. A writer at heart, Seth says he's over the moon now that he can write about what he loves. When he isn't writing for Screen Rant, he is putting his film degree from Lights Film School to good use by working on future film projects.

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Star Wars: 10 Bizarre BTS Facts About The Villains - Screen Rant

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero