It seems the most enigmatic Jedi of them all was originally not quite so enigmatic.
It's been 33 years since Yoda was first introduced in the second Star Wars film, The Empire Strikes Back. Since then he's appeared in four more Star Wars flicks and countless books, comics, videogames and more. But through all that, we've never been told his species, his place of birth or why the hell he talks like that. He's always just been, well ... Yoda. But apparently, like many characters in the Star Wars universe, Yoda was originally going to be something more.
More Star Wars
George Lucas originally intended "Yoda" to be the character's surname. His first name was going to be ... wait for it ... Minch. That's right, the coolest Jedi of them all was originally going to be a dude known as "Minch Yoda."
Luckily for all of us, Lucas eventually pared down the name, adding to Yoda's ever-present mystery. The name "Minch" did end up making a Star Wars appearance, though. Minch was another Jedi master, also of Yoda's species, who lived 700 years before the Battle of Yavin and first appeared in the story "Heart of Darkness" in the Dark Horse comic Star Wars Tales #16, first published in 2003. So, in the end, we got a Minch and we got a Yoda, but we avoided a Minch Yoda.
And check out these other little-known sci-fi facts:
Uhura's famed Trek kiss wasn't meant to be with Kirk
Studio execs pushed for Chewbacca to wear pants
Millennium Falcon appeared in Blade Runner
Ripley was supposed to DIE at the end of Alien
Homeless James Cameron sold Terminator script for $1
Why Tron's FX got snubbed for an Oscar
Jewel Staite played Amy Pond in Supernatural
Toshiro Mifune turned down Vader role
How a mime saved the original RoboCop
Lucas originally wanted FOUR trilogies
Why Soylent Green was called Soylent Green
R2-D2 appeared in Raiders of the Lost Ark
Gandalf wasn't going to be named Gandalf
A computer glitch almost killed Toy Story 2
The incredibly filthy joke hidden in Willy Wonka
Kirk wasn't Wrath of Khan's only father
The accident that gave us the lightsaber
Scully stood on a box to film X-Files
Kirk's Trek hot rod was Catwoman's, too
James Cameron played the Alien Queen
Why HAL 9000 sang 'Daisy' in 2001
What inspired Alien chestburster scene
3 ways George Lucas' wife saved Star Wars
The brawl that got Mel Gibson the Mad Max gig
James Doohan was shot six times on D-Day
Tolkien killed a Beatles LOTR movie
How Ghostbusters pissed off Isaac Asimov
The lyrics to Star Trek's opening theme
The famous "Wilhelm scream"
(Via Wikipedia and Wookiepedia)