Star Wars is a point of contention in today’s pop cultural world. Where the franchise once united both nerds and casual fans alike back in the original trilogy days, now it has divided even the fandom itself. The sequel trilogy is famous for always garnering negative criticism and insults from hardcore fans despite critical praise being extremely high. Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi caused controversy as the film was lambasted by fans while praise was showered onto it by critics. It was a lot of drama over a film series which makes one question why certain people don’t go out and get real lives.

What we do know is that the negativity really began from the prequel trilogy. Darth Vader’s origins weren’t met with warm reception from fans who made it clear they disliked Anakin Skywalker’s characterization, and above all, the truckload of CGI scenes that dominated all the three movies in this part of the saga. These criticisms weren’t unfounded, however, as it is a task to watch these films without being annoyed to some degree by the overcompensation of graphical scenes.

But filmmaking is an art form that is severely underappreciated. It’s not easy to make these movies and a lot of effort goes into finalizing what we see on our screens. If you happen to catch a glimpse of how these motion pictures are made you’ll have a newfound appreciation for the work the crew and producers put into it. Star Wars needs this appreciation the most, and here are 25 Behind-the-Scenes photos to do just that.

25 Coffin Scene Of Padmé

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Padmé’s passing was the turning point for Anakin into Darth Vader, who wasn’t around to see his wife interred in the coffin. Padmé did look at peace and pretty while she was in her coffin, and this would be due to the intricacies with which the setting was prepared.

As can be seen, a team of women stood over Natalie Portman to adorn the coffin. No one looks like they’re having a good time, maybe they were all feeling the emotions of the scene too.

24 Padmé And Anakin's Green Screen Romance

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The scenes involving Padmé and Anakin following Episode I usually involved a degree of romance. Whenever these scenes were on, there would be a magnanimous backdrop behind or around them. In this scene, though it doesn’t appear to be as romantic so much as distressful, Anakin and Padmé hold each other close with a backdrop that doesn’t seem very romantic.

Of course, almost every scene in the prequel trilogy had CGI involved in them and this one is no different. No gorgeous backdrop, just plain old green screen.

23 Greedo's Face

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In Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, Anakin was shown to be engaging with another little orphan boy in a deleted scene. In this altercation, Anakin and the little alien tussled over a menial matter which was broken up by Qui-Gon Jinn, who taught Anakin that violence didn’t do anything to help the matter.

That little alien turned out to be Greedo, who would meet his end 30 years later by Han Solo. This picture shows Greedo’s mask off the actor who would portray him.

22 Animation Of Clones

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The clones were the most generic piece of CGI you could find in a film; this CGI was littered everywhere in the prequel trilogy. Still, it does take some time and effort to make the graphics come to life and this screenshot should be shown to people that complain all the time about the CGI interfering with the film experience.

It’s not a walk in the park to make a CGI event and the clones do require a lot of work to come out right.

21 Concept Of Yoda

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Puppetry took a backseat (or rather the seat was thrown out the window) in the prequel trilogy. Yoda, who was famously acted out with a puppet in the original trilogy, was completely CGI in the prequels. It was needed, too, as the character was in a fight to the end with Darth Sidious in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith.

This concept was made to present the facial features of the character.

He looks wise enough as required, but for longtime fans the puppet Yoda will always take the front seat.

20 The Crew Watching A Scene

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We’re left spellbound by the happenings onscreen because these events have been touched and perfected after arduous hours of work, but it’s a special sight when you find the crew themselves being captivated by the shooting of a scene.

Here, we can see the crew of one of the trilogy films being rapt in attention as an important scene is filmed. It goes to show how invested everyone is in the story as without a doubt these people must have grown up watching Star Wars.

19 Dooku Fight Scene Blooper

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Hey, wait a second, that’s not Christopher Lee at all! Then again, if you expected a guy who around Eighty-year-old or more to take part in action choreography that involved a whole lot of jumping and fighting with lasers then you need to rethink some stuff.

Despite the discount Dooku, there seems to have been a goof up.

Ewan McGregor doesn’t seem all that impressed by whatever’s transpired here while Fake Dooku lurks in the background looking rather sheepish. Meanwhile, Anakin looks embarrassed by something.

18 Final Duel Rehearsal

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Say whatever you want about the cheesiness of the prequel trilogy, but there’s no doubt the final duel between Obi-Wan and Anakin was a thing of beauty. The two engaged in an intense fight that saw Obi-Wan take the victory big. However, both competitors completed the fight with supreme performances.

Here we see the two actors duel it out in a rehearsal while still in Star Wars garb. It seems as if this was a quick rehearsal before the final scene was done.

17 Darth Vader Reveal Scene

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We all knew Darth Vader would not be making an appearance until the end of the entire prequel trilogy seeing that this version of Anakin was supposed to be where the story was going. Despite that, everyone was definitely waiting for Darth Vader to make an appearance the whole time. The first chronological appearance of the antagonist was one of the better points of the trilogy and in this picture we see Darth Vader being accompanied by Darth Sidious. The story was truly on its way forward.

16 George Lucas Teaching How To Be A Villain

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George Lucas was the one whose brainchild Star Wars became. Naturally, he is the only one who would know how Anakin would become Darth Vader. It was his mind’s eye that formulated what the sinister Anakin Skywalker looked like and it was the actor’s job to convey this forward.

While Hayden wasn’t that great as a sedate Anakin, he wasn’t too bad as a sinister one.

Here, George shows Hayden how to play the villainous Skywalker and on his way toward becoming Darth Vader.

15 Palpatine And Windu Fight

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In a funny way, this still makes it look like George is jealous of the actors who get to play around with the lightsabers while he’s left out. Of course, George is actually surveying whether the actors are getting the job done the right way, as even a lightsaber duel needs to show the spirit of the Jedi and Sith ways.

What takes the aura out of this scene though is the fact that the actors are holding ridiculous looking sticks that would be graphically made into lightsabers.

14 Obi-Wan Training

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In an appearance on The Graham Norton Show over a decade after finishing Star Wars, Ewan McGregor showed he was still superb with a lightsaber. That would be a given seeing that the actor was required to spend months training how to hold his own in a lightsaber duel.

This fight scene rehearsal is much more impressive than the Windu and Palpatine one seen earlier despite Ewan not even in his costume. It’s because the props he and his partner are holding look way more formidable.

13 Blue Screen And Blue Enemy

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The enemies the characters fight onscreen are sometimes real people dressed as aliens or sentries while many a time they are CGI’d or motion captured into the scene. This particular one featuring Natalie Portman is one where a blue screen and blue costume was employed for the computing team to work their magic on.

Interestingly, Natalie Portman looks genuinely spooked.

Chances are she was surprised deliberately by the director or she’s just that good as an actress that the ridiculous environment does nothing to hinder her performance.

12 Ewan McGregor Goofing Around

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With his role requiring him to play an older mentor-type figure, Ewan McGregor was always seen as an adult by the fanbase. This makes it easy to forget the fact that the guy wasn’t all that old at all and was a young man on a blockbuster film set. In this behind-the-scenes photo, we can see the fun man come out of Ewan as he arrives on set to start filming for the epic space opera series. It also shows how much of a good relationship the actors had with the crew.

11 C3P0 Filming

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C3PO has the honor of being a character who has been seen across all the prequel, original and sequel trilogies. Everyone loves the robot for his bumbling personality and spooky nature, despite being an android. The reason why he’s played so well is that the actor is required to convey the physicality of the droid.

Here, the actor is seen without his C3PO mask, but retaining everything else about the costume. It also looks like he and R2D2 really are best friends because R2 still lurks around him. Best friends ever.

10 Jar Jar Mask Formation

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Jar Jar Binks might be the most annoying character in the Star Wars series – or maybe even in all of fiction history – but perhaps he could be less annoying if he shut his trap more frequently. Here, Jar Jar’s concept is being perfected by an artist.

He looks rather at peace.

With his role being required when filming was to begin, the concept model of Jar Jar isn’t half bad. Maybe the developers should have thought about keeping his mouth shut during the duration of the film, maybe then people wouldn’t hate him as much they do now.

9 Steven Spielberg On Set

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Steven Spielberg is one of George Lucas’ best buds owing to the director’s involvement with Lucas’ other big franchise, Indiana Jones. It makes full sense that Steven would be welcome with open arms on set to any George Lucas film and the director would never turn down the opportunity to be on a Star Wars set.

Here we can see him meet a future Oscar-winning actress.

It seems everyone even remotely affiliated with Star Wars is destined for success and in this photo, all three people have seen enormous amounts of achievements.

8 Darth Maul Make Up

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Darth Maul will forever be seen with disdain due to his role in taking out Qui-Gon Jinn, the man who was viewed as a superb protagonist in an otherwise ill-received movie. Darth Maul also had a scary looking face, one which went well with the character and the requirements of the movie as someone imposing needed to be there for the prequel series to start off well.

However, the makeup process was no joke and the actor was required to spend a whole lot of time sitting idly by while all the prosthesis was applied onto him.

7 Obi-Wan And Qui-Gon Choreography

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The final fight with Darth Maul saw Qui-Gon meet his end, and while it was entertaining to watch, the fight itself had several unintentionally funny moments what with all the backflipping. The back flips weren’t just funny onscreen as here in this photo you can see the actors engage in those dramatic jumps in the presence of a blue screened environment.

It also shows how none of what we saw in the film was actually there. In this sense, it’s remarkable how well the graphics department served as the finished movie.

6 Jinn And Maul

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Liam Neeson is a beast when it comes to filming action. The actor is well-known for doing most of his stunts, disregarding his age. Although his best stunts are in films like Taken, Liam doesn’t hold back on commitment in other films either.

Here, he can be seen engaging Darth Maul as Qui-Gon. The Jedi Master isn’t holding anything back either. Although the intensity is disrupted by the blue screen in the background, you have to admire the emotions the actors present here. It does look like a final showdown.