10 Things You Don't Know About Tatooine
For a planet that is farthest from the bright center of the universe, a lot of things happen on Tatooine: Anakin Skywalker is born there, he meets his future wife in Watto’s junk shop, and he begins his fall to the dark side there, after he unsuccessfully tries to free his mother. Luke Skywalker lives there for the first 19 years of his life, as does Obi-Wan for his last 19 years, and (Darth) Maul’s arc finally comes to a tragic end on that desert planet.
So, although it’s located in the Outer Rim Territories, Tatooine plays quite a central role in the Star Wars saga. Reason enough to take a look at 10 things you (probably) don't know about Tatooine:
1. Two By Day, Three By Night
Most people know about the twin suns of Tatooine and will immediately associate it with Luke staring into the binary sunset and the "Force Theme." The two suns that the desert planet circles around are (not very creatively) called Tatoo I and Tatoo II. In our own universe it took NASA until 2011 before a planet with two suns was discovered (Kepler 16b, or more fittingly named “Tatooine”). Tatooine also had 3 moons called Ghomrassen, Guermessa, and Chenini. Which brings us to number:
2. Not So Far Away
The name Tatooine actually stems from the town Tataouine, which is located in Tunisia and has a population of more than 60,000. Although no filming for Star Wars actually took place there, George Lucas apparently liked the name and adapted it for Luke’s homeworld. Ghomrassen, Guermessa, and Chenini are actual names of towns in the vicinity of Tataouine, which is kind of fitting.
3. Not Just Tunisia
Most of the scenes, that take place on Tatooine were filmed at several locations in Tunisia, around Djerba, Matmata, Tozeur, Medenine, Ksar Hadada, the Chott el Jerid, and La Grande. But the Rebels’ failed execution by the Great Pit of Carkoon and the Sarlacc were actually filmed in Yuma.
4. No Sinkholes
Lucas may have liked the sound of the name Tataouine, but initially the desert planet was called Utapau and only got its final name in the fourth draft of the script. Curiously enough, the name Tatooine is never used in A New Hope and was only first identified onscreen in The Empire Strikes Back. It would take nearly three decades until a planet called Utapau was actually featured in a Star Wars movie, which proves again that Lucas never threw ideas way.
5. An Actual Sea
It’s hard to believe, but in ancient times, tens of thousands of years in the past, Tatooine was a planet covered by oceans and rainforest. There is a Jawa legend that talks about the Dune Sea having been a real one once. In current canon, it is not known who or what transforms Tatooine into that barren wasteland, but in Legends this is caused by a war between the local Kumungahs and the Rakata, who bombard the planet from orbit, boiling the seas away.
6. Mining Colony
At some point in its past, Tatooine becomes a mining colony. Large sandcrawlers are brought there in order to mine valuable minerals from deep under the surface. When it turns out that the minerals can be found on the surface and that they have unwanted metallurgic properties, the mining activities quickly die away, leaving the giant machines to be picked-up by the Jawas, who use them as their mobile homes and means of transportation for their collected scrap.
7. Obscure Capital
With a population of only around 200,000 Tatooine is sparsely populated, as only a small part of the surface is suitable for a permanent living. These people gather in several small towns, with the most well-known being Anchorhead, Mos Eisley, Mos Espa, and Mos Pelgo. The capital of Tatooine is a more obscure town called Bestine, a city where Luke, Ben, and the droids spend a night on their way to Mos Eisley.
8. Popular location
Tatooine is featured not only in six of the nine saga movies (I, II, III, IV, VI, IX), but also in The Clone Wars, Rebels, and The Mandalorian. It is mentioned in Episodes V and VII and in Solo. All in all, to this day, it has appeared or at least been mentioned in nearly 240 movies, TV shows, shorts, books, comics, audiobooks, and video games of the current canon. Coruscant, in comparison, has “only” appeared or been mentioned in 352 works of fiction. Not bad for such a backwater planet.
9. Behind The Bar
The cantina, where Ben and Luke meet Han and Chewbacca, is surely one of the most iconic locations in all of Star Wars. The man behind the bar, who doesn’t like droids and blasters, is called Wuher, but he is not the actual owner. The cantina belongs to a male Wookiee named Chalmun, who bought it from the Vriichon brothers after he had made enough money by swindling tourists on Ord Mantel. Chalmun is never featured in any movie, but he is mentioned several times in the book From a Certain Point of View.
10. Hit Makers
Speaking of the cantina, Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes, the Bith band that performs there when Luke and Ben arrive, account for three of the five greatest hits on Tatooine, with “Mad About Me” (the song that is featured in A New Hope) coming in at number one, "The Sequential Passage of Chronological Intervals" making number three and "Goodnight, But Not Goodbye (Mad About Me Remix)" coming in at number five. The other hit band from the desert planet, The Max Rebo Band, delivers the number four hit "(That Joyous Night) I Ate My Mate." And of course, there is “Lapti Nek,” which should definitely have been number one.