Shedding a lightsaber on ''Episode II'''s mysteries

Image credit: Star Wars Episode II: © 2000 Lucasfilm Ltd & ™ All Rights Reserved

All About

Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones

Get the latest photos, news, and more

THE 411 ON R2 During the chase in the bowels of clone-producing Geonosis, R2 takes flight. But it's not the first time: For ''Phantom,'' R2 was filmed falling off a platform and propelling itself back up; Lucas eventually trimmed the sequence. So why didn't the droid show off aeronautic skills in later installments? According to an official ''Star Wars'' website, the rockets have only a 20-year warranty.

JANGO'S JAUNT If Jango Fett (Temuera Morrison) is such a savvy baddie, why didn't he kill Anakin and Obi-Wan when he had the chance on Coruscant? ''To provide another degree of separation between Dooku and the [murder] attempt, Jango prefers to think of himself as a bounty hunter rather than an assassin,'' says Lucasfilm's Jeanne Cole. Plus, had he iced the Jedis, ''Clones'' would have been about 12 minutes long.

AGE-OLD QUESTION Fans were delighted by brief scenes with young Owen Lars (Joel Edgerton) and Beru (Bonnie Piesse), who later become guardians to Luke Skywalker. But even though Owen and Anakin are stepbrothers, Lars seems too young to grow into the much older Owen of ''Episode IV'' -- unless he spent an extra 30 years in the Tatooine suns. ''I don't know how they're going to figure that out,'' says Piesse. ''That occurred to Joel and me. We just accepted that they know what they're doing.'' Just so. ''Their ages haven't been established'' in the official ''Star Wars'' canon, says Cole. ''We would estimate that Owen is older than Anakin.'' (In fact, Edgerton is 28; Christensen, 21.)

SEQUEL OPPORTUNITIES You don't need a Holocron to glimpse the future in the untitled ''Episode III,'' due in summer 2005. Jimmy Smits' Bail Organa -- despite his brief, conquistador look-alike appearance in ''Clones'' -- will take a bigger role, eventually adopting Leia Skywalker (as originally revealed in ''Episode IV''). Other rumored developments: the appearance of Governor Tarkin (played by Peter Cushing in ''Episode IV'') and a duel between Obi-Wan and Anakin on a lava-laden planet. ''If we don't see that in 'Episode III,''' says Griffin, ''fans are just going to be appalled.''

OBI AWARD He may have been a petulant Padawan in ''Episode I,'' but Obi-Wan lets his hair down, literally, in an outer-space mullet. ''That was a drawing done years before I arrived,'' laughs McGregor. ''I quite like it, though. By 'Episode III,' I'm going to look just like George Lucas.'' As for Kenobi's penchant for dive bars throughout the series, McGregor explains: ''He's a bit of a lad.''

(Additional reporting by Jeff Jensen and William Keck)