Star Wars: Lucasfilm Story Group Reveals Origins of ‘The Last Jedi’s Code Name “Space Bear”

Living in the age of the internet has forced movie studios to go to great lengths to deceive the general public, including shooting films under fake names as to not draw attention to themselves. In the case of The Last Jedi, the code name it was given was “Space Bear,” a moniker that was honored by official cast and crew keepsakes. More than just two words thrown together, the Lucasfilm Story Group shared the significance of the name and how it connected to Luke Skywalker and Legends of the Fall.

“We were talking about how Luke had retreated and just taken himself out of the world and for some reason [it felt like] Legends of the Fall, when Tristan goes into the woods in the end,” Rayne Roberts shared. “But then we were like, ‘And then he gets mauled by a bear.’ And then someone said, ‘So Luke’s like a space bear.’”

“Luke has to find his space bear, and then that became the code name for the movie,” Pablo Hidalgo echoed. “[Writer/director] Rian [Johnson], I think, wrote on a whiteboard in the Star Wars-type title font, ‘Space Bear,’ and it was forever known internally as Space Bear.”

The bear theme didn’t end with the production code, as even the characters themselves earned monikers related to bears.

“[Luke’s] code name on the production was Space Bear,” Roberts pointed out. “And Rey is ‘Goldilocks.’ And we can go on and on and on.”

“Pretty much every character in The Last Jedi has a bear based codename,” Hidalgo pointed out.

Roberts chimed in, “Yoda is ‘Baby Bear.’”

The Story Group fought back their urges to reveal all of these code names, allowing Johnson the honor of revealing them.

“We’ll let Rian spill some of those. Those are so fun and so his sense of humor,” Hidaldo shared.

Discovering that a Star Wars film has a code name should come as no surprise, as the series first used a code name when filming Return of the Jedi. In hopes of deterring fans from discovering filming locations in California, ranging from Death Valley National Park to the redwood forests of Northern California, the film used the code name “Blue Harvest.”

If the code name wasn’t enough to deter fans, the crew even wore shirts with the fake film’s logo on them, including the tagline, “Horror beyond imagination.”

Most recently, Solo: A Star Wars Story used the code name “Red Cup” as an homage to the popular plastic cups made by SOLO, who makes a variety of disposable products.

You can catch Space Bear, a.k.a. The Last Jedi, in theaters now.

[H/T YouTube, Star Wars]