20 pieces of trivia you need to know about Star Wars

There was a time before the Imperial March

It’s hard to imagine a time before John Williams’ iconic Star Wars music. From that first bash of the cymbals over the opening crawl, scales fell from our ears and we were reborn. The world was forever changed. Kids would know the music in the same way they know that the sky is blue; adults would forget there was ever a time it did not exist.

In much the same way, it’s hard to look at a picture of Darth Vader without hearing the sinister tones of the Imperial March. The music is so synonymous with arguably the best villain in movie history (fight me, Thanos!), that you can’t have one without the other. Every cloak swish and irresistible pun (this is Vader’s most human trait) should be punctuated with a terrifying brass section.

But it is not the case. Even though it feels like it has existed since the dawn of time (or at the very least the dawn of Star Wars), our memories deceive us. When we first meet Darth Vader in A New Hope, there is no Imperial March. It hadn’t been written yet. The theme first appears in Empire Strikes Back, making A New Hope the only film in which the heavy breather’s signature track isn’t played in some form or another.

Crazy how our minds can lie to us, isn’t it? But it isn’t for us to quibble about the track being missing from the first movie — we should just be grateful to have it at all. And marvel at the fact that John Williams’ musical talents somehow extend to mind control.