Star Wars: The Force Awakens was probably the most anticipated movie of all time but it was also one of the most closely guarded. The filmmakers went to painstaking effort to keep plot details and secrets under wraps. 

With the release of the film on Blu-Ray next month, one of the extras features a behind the scenes documentary that gives away a lot of fun secrets from the making of the film. Needless to say there are plenty of plot spoilers for the film here so if you still intend to see the movie we'd advise that you stop reading now. 

You can watch a trailer for the documentary here: 

Here are eleven of the most interesting facts from the production.

 

1. Luke Skywalker was originally meant to be a lot more prominent in the film.


The documentary showcases a huge amount of concept art that never made it to the finished film including images of Luke in action with a lightsaber and another holding Darth Vader's helmet.  

 

2. Rey's interrogation scene with Kylo Ren was the audition that secured the role for Daisy Ridley

“She just blew my mind,” Abrams says in The Secrets of “The Force Awakens”: A Cinematic Journey. “She’s reaching this depth of struggle, and tears are streaming down her face. … I thought, Oh my god.”

 

3. John Boyega auditioned with Finn’s first conversation with Poe multiple times before he got the role.

Abrams estimated that Boyega auditioned nine times before landing the role of Finn. The doc pieces together three of those auditions from Boyega who even then was using an American accent. 

 

4. Mark Hamill read all the stage directions at the initial script read-through with the cast.

There is footage from the first ever cast read through in the doc. Since Hamill had no lines of dialogue in the script, Abrams asked him to read the scene descriptions. 

“Usually, the director does that,” Hamill says in the documentary. “But in this case, he said he wanted to observe.”

The final line in the screenplay is 'The promise of an adventure just beginning.'

 

5. Ridley asked Abrams for more scenes with BB-8.

BB-8 was the first character Ridley acted with on set, and while that was daunting to her at first, the puppeteers who controlled him were so good that she quickly grew to love working with him.

“I asked J.J. if I could have a bit more with BB-8 because I think it’s such a nice relationship,” she says in the doc. “He’s this talisman that’s the first constant that Rey’s ever had.”

 

6. Abrams insisted that some of the stormtroopers should be played by women.

Several of the stormtroopers who appear in The Force Awakens are played by women, which was part of Abrams’ effort to expand the diversity of the Star Wars cinematic universe.

 

7. Kylo Ren’s costume was so complicated to get on that it helped Adam Driver get into character.

During the documentary Driver admitted that he had such a hard time getting Kylo Ren's costume on that he was pissed off by the time he got to set. 

"I was totally ready to play the villain."

 

8. Captain Phasma got her name from the movie 'Phantasm'.

"The name came because of looking at the chrome design of Phasma's uniform it reminded my of the movie 'Phantasm' and there's this chrome ball, this kind of devil ball with spikes on it. I always loved the design of that."

 

9. Harrison Ford had forgotten what the Millenium Falcon cockpit actually looked like.

The production design team pored through every last scrap of visual material of the original Millennium Falcon set in order to make their version as authentic as possible but Harrison Ford wasn't so sure when he saw it for the first time.

“I’d been away so long, I looked at it and I said, ‘This doesn’t look right. Was this here?’” Ford says with a smile in the documentary. “And they said, ‘Yeeeess.’ It was fun to see it again.”

 

10. The production spent one whole day on the “Chewie, we’re home” scene.

“Everyone was waiting for the line,” says Ridley. “J.J. really wanted it to be perfect.” Indeed Abrams  was so gobsmacked by the scene, there’s a shot of him mouthing, “OH MY GOD” directly to the documentary crew’s camera.

 

11. Abrams’ farewell speech to Ford made the actor cry.

Naturally considering it was the film's biggest spoiler, Abrams didn't allow many people on set for the scene in which Kylo Ren kills Han Solo. There was however, a much bigger crowd present for Ford’s final day of shooting on The Force Awakens. After the actor had wrapped, Abrams delivered a speech to the cast and crew, calling Ford “a man who was a hero to us before this movie, but he is even more so today.” The actor stood quietly surrounded by everyone, clasping his hands, tears filling his eyes, and welcoming a hug from Chewbacca as he ended the last day he will ever spend on a Star Wars movie set.

 

Via Buzzfeed