Star Wars Celebration: Secrets of The Phantom Menace revealed during 20th anniversary panel

20 years later, Star Wars Celebration returned to where it all began: The Phantom Menace. Warwick Davis and more all revealed some secrets of the movie.

To kick off the final day of Star Wars Celebration Chicago, the Celebration Stage looked to the past, honoring the 20th anniversary of The Phantom Menace (and indeed, the first Star Wars Celebration). Warwick Davis hosted, and panelists got to tell stories of how they joined the movie, how they worked on it, and even a few hints for the future (perhaps).

The panel started with the behind-the-scenes work of people like Doug Chiang, Matthew Wood, Jean Bolte, and John Knoll. Bolte revealed that her favorite digital models to work on included Sebulba, Jar Jar Binks, Watto, and Yoda’s digital version. “We’re giving them a story,” she said of what it’s like to add all of those little details.

Chiang, meanwhile, said that at one point, he was using napkins to take notes from George Lucas on what to create. “My personal favorite [design] is the podrace,” he said. “I love car racing as well.” However, his first designs did physically tether the pods together; you’ll notice in the final film, they’re only tethered by electricity.

“Episode I was going to be more grounded in the ’20s and ’30s,” he explained for his design principles, citing Lucas’ thinking of the movies as period films. But Lucas isn’t his only influence. He looks to the art of Ralph McQuarrie as well.

Wood, meanwhile, used “anything I could get my hands on,” including unmuffled Ferraris, to create the sounds of the pods. Davis pointed out that there’s actually no score during the first lap, meaning that Wood had “a huge canvas to work with,” as he called it. “It wasn’t really well-worn,” he said of the choices that went into the “sleek” soundscape.

So, what made the sounds of his two favorites, Anakin’s and Sebulba’s racers?  “Anakin’s was a high-end Porsche,” Wood said, but Sebulba’s pod is one of the unmuffled Ferraris that “a guy punched a hole in his muffler for.”

Some of them made cameos in the film. Knoll is a pilot who dies (mostly because he has a beard); Wood, meanwhile, became Bib Fortuna, basically since Lucas thought he could fit into the costume. For all the work, sometimes it’s just a bit of luck that leads to cameos.

Next came “the master and the apprentice.” No, Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor weren’t there; instead, Ian McDiarmid and Ray Park, the men behind Darth Sidious and Darth Maul, came to the stage. “Well, you know, Friday, I just happened to be in the area,” McDiarmid said of his surprise at the Episode IX panel.

After all, these two filmed first. “History was being made,” McDiarmid said of his feelings on that very first day. “I was pretty nervous, to be honest with you,” Park explained, noting that McDiarmid “really reassured me and kept me calm … and I still want to be your apprentice!”

McDiarmid also got to unveil some of his acting direction from Lucas when it came to playing Sidious: “Your face shouldn’t feel like your face.”

As for Park, he looked to Tekken, Soul Edge, and wuxia films as well as his own background in gymnastics and martial arts to create Maul’s movements.

“That little smirk you see when the doors open, that’s me like ‘Yeah!'” he explained, noting that the cloak Maul wears “changed the texture” of how he could fight, and without it, he could really cut loose. If you want to spot Park as well, he plays a guard in a cameo during the fight for Theed Palace; Davis got in Vanity Fair as his own thrown-together cameo. “You don’t wanna sit around when you’re working on Star Wars!” Park said.

Both of the men got to reflect on how the saga has changed them. “Empire was the movie that changed my life,” Park said finally. “I love it. I’m so happy. My life has changed because of Star Wars.” McDiarmid said, “I made the assumption that we’ll never ever see [the Emperor] again [after Return of the Jedi kills the character], and I guess that’s how it’ll remain.” That got a laugh from the audience. Never trust a Sith Lord.

Ahmed Best and Anthony Daniels then came onto the stage. Back then, he said, he thought that Lucas wouldn’t get to nine films, with a wry laugh. “I was really happy that I was made by Anakin,” he said, at least initially. It took him a while to remember who Anakin becomes. “Of course, I wasn’t actually hefting the suit there,” Daniels said with a smile, since the non-covered Threepio was a puppet. “It was a weird thing.” Of course, that makes his favorite line: “What do you mean, ‘naked’?”

“Nobody knew how much to do,” Best said when it came to his work as Jar Jar Binks and the CGI involved, since it was such a new technology at the time. But it worked; he wore the suit just in case, and Jar Jar came alive on screen. At the end, Davis honored him for his work in the field of motion capture.

The production crew then returned for the final bit of the panel, which started with a message from Lucas himself. “I love each and every one of you,” he said to the fans there and saying that the contributions of everyone on that stage made the movie.

Davis then recounted the work that everyone had done in the 20 years since: winning Oscars, working their way up at Lucasfilm, coming up with ideas for movies like Rogue One, returning for movies like Solo, winning Tony Awards, trolling Daniels (okay, that one happened on stage), “appearing in more Star Wars films than any actor — even [Davis]” for Daniels, and more.

Looking back — even at the trailer that opened the panel — The Phantom Menace might seem so basic, but to hear the stories of everyone who worked on the film proves that yes, it really did “break new ground,” in Lucas’ words. Happy 20 years to the start of the prequel trilogy!

Stay tuned for more from Star Wars Celebration Chicago.