Star Wars: A New Hope Trivia
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98 free Star Wars: a New Hope trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
This Star Wars: A New Hope trivia quiz is devoted entirely to the 1977 original, later retitled Episode IV. It covers the making of the film (George Lucas's rejected pitches, the Journal of the Whills, Luke Starkiller, the Tunisian and Guatemalan locations, the Dykstraflex camera), the casting (who turned down Han Solo and Obi-Wan, how Peter Mayhew and Kenny Baker were chosen, why David Prowse lost Vader's voice), the design of the Millennium Falcon, the Death Star and the droids, and the release: 32 theatres on May 25, 1977, six Academy Awards, the Kenner empty-box Christmas and the 1997 Special Edition that made Greedo shoot first. It is written for fans who want more than 'who played Luke', with difficulty running from easy to expert, and it works as a movie-night round or a solo test. It stays inside Episode IV, so no prequel or sequel questions. Every answer was checked against a reference page before publishing, so the dates, credits and production details hold up.
30 of 98 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Star Wars opened in US cinemas in 1977 on the Wednesday before which holiday weekend?
Memorial Day
Memorial Day weekend was Lucas's pick, though a Fox executive noted that nobody had ever opened a summer film before school was out; it began on May 25 in just 32 theaters.
Q 02Which film's release prompted Star Wars' Episode IV subtitle?
The Empire Strikes Back
The Empire Strikes Back had opened in 1980 already titled Episode V, so the April 1981 reissue of the original added Episode IV – A New Hope to its crawl to bring the two films into line.
Q 03Which Kurosawa film about peasants escorting a princess shaped Lucas's Star Wars treatment?
The Hidden Fortress
The Hidden Fortress is told through its two lowliest characters, a device Lucas has said he borrowed: Star Wars opens with the droids C-3PO and R2-D2 rather than with its heroes.
Q 04What was the title of Lucas's unfinished two-page synopsis from early 1973?
Journal of the Whills
Journal of the Whills told of a 'Jedi-Bendu' and his apprentice in two pages; Lucas's agent found it so confusing that he advised something simpler, and Lucas began again.
Q 05What was Luke's surname in the drafts before it became Skywalker during production?
Starkiller
Starkiller was still Luke's surname when shooting began; Lucas dropped it for Skywalker over what he called its 'unpleasant connotations' with Charles Manson, whose followers had murdered the actress Sharon Tate.
Q 06Which Fox executive championed Star Wars after United Artists and Universal had passed on it?
Alan Ladd Jr.
Alan Ladd Jr., a Fox vice president, admitted he did not grasp the technical side but loved a private screening of American Graffiti; Lucas said later that Ladd had invested in him, not in the film.
Q 07Which actor turned down the part of Han Solo because he did not understand the script?
Al Pacino
Al Pacino said he was offered a fortune but could not make sense of the script, so he passed; he later joked that he had been in the mood to give Harrison Ford a career.
Q 08Which actor was considered for Obi-Wan but was instead cast as the villainous Tarkin?
Peter Cushing
Peter Cushing was first considered for Obi-Wan; as Tarkin he was given boots so painfully small that he played many scenes in slippers, filmed from the waist up.
Q 09What did Luke want to pick up at Tosche Station?
Power converters
Luke whines that he was going to Tosche Station to pick up some power converters; Uncle Owen tells him he can waste time with his friends when his chores are done.
Q 10Anthony Daniels wanted the C-3PO role after seeing whose concept painting of the droid?
Ralph McQuarrie's
Ralph McQuarrie's painting of a gleaming C-3PO, modelled on the Maschinenmensch of Fritz Lang's Metropolis, won Daniels over; he later kept the voice role after Lucas auditioned about thirty other actors.
Q 11What job was Peter Mayhew doing when he was cast as Chewbacca?
Hospital orderly
Hospital orderly Peter Mayhew, 7 ft 3 in tall, said he won the part simply by standing up to greet Lucas, whose eyes 'almost popped out of his head'.
Q 12Why did Lucas dub James Earl Jones over the actor inside the Vader suit?
He had a West Country English accent
He had a West Country English accent: David Prowse spoke Vader's lines on set in a rural burr that, Carrie Fisher said, earned him the nickname 'Darth Farmer', and Lucas wanted a darker voice.
Q 13How did Ben Burtt create R2-D2's beeps and squeaks?
Q 21Which crime lord do Han and Chewbacca leave to pay off before the Death Star attack?
Jabba the Hutt
Han owes Jabba the Hutt for a smuggled cargo he dumped when boarded by the Empire; in 1977 Jabba appeared only in dialogue, since the scene with a human Jabba (Declan Mulholland) was cut.
Q 22Which friend of Luke's leaves Tatooine for the Rebellion in scenes cut from the 1977 release?
Biggs Darklighter
Biggs Darklighter, Luke's Anchorhead friend, tells him he is joining the Rebellion in scenes cut before release; he survives in the film as Red Three, dying in the trench run.
Q 23Which filmmaker helped trim the Star Wars opening crawl from six paragraphs to four sentences?
Brian De Palma
By imitating baby noises on a synthesizer
By imitating baby noises on a synthesizer, in short: Burtt recorded his own infant-like coos over an intercom, then blended them with electronic tones from an ARP 2600.
Q 14Luke's Tatooine home was filmed at an underground hotel in which Tunisian town?
Matmata
Matmata's Hotel Sidi Driss, a traditional Berber dwelling dug into the ground, played the inside of the Lars homestead and came back to the screen in Attack of the Clones in 2002.
Q 15The rebel base on Yavin 4 was filmed at which Mayan site in Guatemala?
Tikal
Tikal's temples, rising above the jungle canopy, stood in for the rebel base; Lucas chose the site after seeing it on a poster in an English travel agency during the shoot.
Q 16The motion-control camera system built for the Star Wars effects shots became known as what?
The Dykstraflex
The Dykstraflex, named for effects chief John Dykstra, could repeat one camera move around a still model pass after pass, so separate elements lined up in a single shot; it won a technical Oscar.
Q 17The Millennium Falcon was redesigned because its first version resembled ships from which TV series?
Space: 1999
The first Falcon looked too much like the Eagle transporters of Space: 1999, so Joe Johnston had four weeks to redo it, told only to 'think of a flying saucer'; the old model became Leia's Tantive IV.
Q 18The Falcon's final shape is often said to be based on what, with the cockpit as an olive on the side?
A hamburger
A hamburger with an olive on the side is the popular account of the saucer Joe Johnston drew in four weeks; in the story the ship is a Corellian freighter that Han won from Lando Calrissian at cards.
Q 19Lucas first assigned the Death Star's design to which artist?
Colin Cantwell
Colin Cantwell built the first models of the Death Star, X-wing and TIE fighter from Lucas's directions; his original Millennium Falcon was reused instead as the rebel ship in the opening shot.
Q 20Where do Luke and Obi-Wan hire Han Solo and Chewbacca?
Mos Eisley
Mos Eisley's cantina is where they find Han; Obi-Wan has already warned Luke that the spaceport is a 'wretched hive of scum and villainy'.
Brian De Palma, shown an unfinished cut, called the crawl too long and incomprehensible, then worked with Jay Cocks to cut it down; Spielberg, by contrast, enjoyed the rough cut.
Q 24In the unfinished Star Wars cut shown to Lucas's friends, what stood in for the space battles?
World War II dogfight footage
World War II dogfight footage from old war films filled the gaps; Lucas also spliced such clips together to show the effects team the kind of movement he wanted from their spaceships.
Q 25Halfway through production the director replaced his editor with Paul Hirsch, Richard Chew and whom?
Marcia Lucas
Marcia Lucas, the director's wife, joined Paul Hirsch and Richard Chew after John Jympson's first cut disappointed Lucas; the three shared the Academy Award for Best Film Editing.
Q 26John Williams recorded the score over 12 days in March 1977 with which ensemble?
The London Symphony Orchestra
The London Symphony Orchestra had a new principal trumpet, Maurice Murphy, whose first day in the job was the first day of recording; Williams recalled that the first thing he played was the fanfare's high C.
Q 27Whose disco version of the Star Wars theme hit number one in the US in October 1977?
Meco
Meco's disco medley 'Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band' topped the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks in October 1977, outdoing John Williams's own main title, which peaked at No. 10.
Q 28Star Wars lost Best Picture to which film?
Annie Hall
Annie Hall took Best Picture and three more awards, yet Star Wars left with the night's biggest haul: six Oscars, all for craft and none in a top category.
Q 29Which Star Wars cast member earned the film's only acting Oscar nomination?
Alec Guinness
Alec Guinness was nominated for Best Supporting Actor as Obi-Wan, in a film he had called 'fairy-tale rubbish' in letters to friends; the award went to Jason Robards.
Q 30Which actor played Luke's Uncle Owen?
Phil Brown
Phil Brown, an American actor who had moved to England after being blacklisted in Hollywood, played Owen Lars; Shelagh Fraser played Aunt Beru.