Star Wars: A New Hope Began Filming 50 Years Ago Today

On March 22, 1976, George Lucas called action on a salt flat in Tunisia and launched principal photography on The Star Wars. Fifty years later, Lucasfilm looks back at the chaotic, droid-malfunctioning first day of filming that started it all.

Fifty years ago, on March 22, 1976, a 31-year-old George Lucas called "action" on a salt flat in Tunisia and quietly changed film history. The working title was The Star Wars, nobody at 20th Century Fox was particularly optimistic, and the production was about to be rocked by every conceivable technical disaster. Half a century later, the day stands as the start of a cultural revolution.

From Modesto to the Sahara

Lucas grew up in Modesto, California, and by the time cameras rolled on The Star Wars he was already considered a rising star among a new generation of American filmmakers. His first feature, 1971's THX 1138, signaled real visionary potential even as it underperformed commercially, and his 1973 hit American Graffiti established him as a bankable writer-director.

The Star Wars wasn't actually a thematic departure. Like THX 1138 and American Graffiti before it, the script centered on a young man from a backwater town trying to break out into something bigger. What made it feel strange to studios was the setting — a space fantasy that mashed together Sergio Leone westerns, Akira Kurosawa samurai epics, and the Flash Gordon serials Lucas loved as a kid.

Phil Brown as Uncle Owen and Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker on set in Tunisia — Phil Brown (Uncle Owen) and Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) were among the first on camera.

Getting to that Tunisian salt flat took years. Lucas was rejected by nearly every studio in Hollywood, and even 20th Century Fox, the one house willing to bankroll the picture, grew increasingly skeptical as production loomed. He pushed through anyway, building out his own visual language and leading a cast and crew from the project's home base at England's EMI Elstree Studios into the African desert, where Tunisia stood in for the fictional planet Tatooine.

The First Shot and the First Line

The first image captured for The Star Wars came from Scene 26, where Jawas present a lineup of droids to Owen Lars (played by Phil Brown) and his nephew, restless farm boy Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill). In typical Lucas fashion, the crew ran two cameras simultaneously, documentary-style.

First shot of Lars Homestead and Jawa sandcrawler in Star Wars A New Hope — The A camera's first shot established the Lars Homestead and Jawa sandcrawler.

The A camera was a Panaflex with a 35mm lens, operated by Ronnie Taylor, capturing a wide establishing view with the sandcrawler on the right and the Lars homestead on the left. Some of the Jawas in the scene were actually played by local Tunisian children running up to the vehicle. The B camera, an Arriflex with a 180mm lens operated by Geoff Glover, held a tighter angle on the homestead "igloo."

B camera shot of Luke Skywalker at Lars Homestead rim — The B camera followed Luke's path up to the rim of the homestead.

It was Brown, as Uncle Owen, who delivered the first line of dialogue ever spoken in a Star Wars production — a gruff, matter-of-fact "Alright" that in the finished film doesn't even survive the cut. The later shots of Aunt Beru down in the Lars' troglodytic dwelling and Luke calling down from the rim were actually captured at a different Tunisian location weeks later.

Crew prepares medium shot for Uncle Owen and Luke on Tatooine set — The crew sets up an additional medium shot of Uncle Owen and Luke.

Droid Difficulties in the Desert

Anthony Daniels in C-3PO costume with script supervisor Ann Skinner — Anthony Daniels takes a break in the C-3PO costume while script supervisor Ann Skinner reviews dialogue.

Moving fast, the production grabbed two takes and rolled on. The B camera captured droid insert shots from the sandcrawler, including the "black robot" (later dubbed R1-G4) and the "umbrella robot" (eventually named WED-15 Septoid Treadwell). Anthony Daniels, playing C-3PO, acted his first scene that day — and was in a lot of physical pain. He hadn't slept the night before, had only worn the full Threepio costume once during a test fitting back in England, and the suit itself was giving him serious grief.

Uncle Owen reviews the droids for sale in Star Wars A New Hope — Uncle Owen inspects the Jawas' droid lineup.

Threepio wasn't even the biggest technical headache. The other droids on set were an ongoing disaster: many of them kept crashing into each other, R2-D2's head fell off multiple times, and performer Kenny Baker, wedged inside Artoo, struggled to hide his legs while trying to shake the droid through its movements.

Crew prepares astromech droid for R5-D4 bad motivator explosion scene — The crew preps an astromech for R5-D4's "bad motivator" moment.

What This Means for Star Wars Fans

Fifty years on from that first "action" call in the Tunisian desert, the chaos of day one has become the foundation myth of the modern blockbuster. Every Star Wars movie, show, comic, and Galaxy's Edge attraction traces back to Lucas and a small crew troubleshooting fallen droid heads and overheated C-3PO suits under the Sahara sun. As Lucasfilm celebrates the 50th anniversary of principal photography on A New Hope, expect a wave of retrospectives — and a fresh appreciation for just how unlikely it all was to work in the first place.