Did You Know? 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' Was Supposed to be 'Shadow of the Empire'

There is no stopping for "Star Wars: The Force Awakens".

Although it has been a week since its release, the film still continues to break box-office records, keeping people to talk about it and add more to the hype that it generated after months of marketing and promotions. Hence, although some trivial matters have been revealed about "The Force Awakens," it seems that there are still a lot more to know.

Pablo Hidalgo, creator and member of the Lucas Film Story Group which supervises "Star Wars" stories for various media, has just revealed one bit but substantial information about the film that would somehow relate it with the expanded universe in "Star Wars" books.

In a Twitter exchange with Jedi News Editor Justin LaSalata, Hidalgo revealed that the original for "The Force Awakens" film was "Shadow of the Empire," a "Star Wars" book written by Steve Perry and published in 1996.

@justinlasalata for longest time, the TFA title was the same as an old novel. Thankfully it changed. :) With so many books, it's inevitable

— Pablo Hidalgo (@pablohidalgo) December 25, 2015

According to Star Wars Wikia, the "Shadow of the Empire" was a multimedia project with several products being released along with the book including a comic series, video game, trading cards as well as a sound track.

However, in the report by Screen Rant, it cited that the plot of "Shadow of the Empire" has no similarity to that of "The Force Awakens" film.

The Screen Rant report highlighted that, although the title can be used for the film given that the "First Order" emerged from the "ashes of the empire," it, nonetheless, could create a problem in terms of promotion as people might get confused finding a different story from the film and the novel.

This is not the first time that background stories like this popped out about "Star Wars: The Force Awakens." Recently, director J.J. Abrams revealed that the character Maz Kanata was inspired by his High School English teacher, Rose Gilbert.

As of present time, "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" is still in theaters. The film has already made numerous box-office records including the biggest Christmas day gross with $49,344,000, according to Box Office Mojo. This figure is more than double of the previous holder, Sherlock Holmes (2009). Also, the film could be on its way to becoming the highest grossing film of all time.

Other "Star Wars" films are already lined-up starting with "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" which scheduled to be released on Dec. 16, 2016. Meanwhile, "Star Wars: Episode VIII" is scheduled on May 26, 2017 while the Han Solo film is on May 25, 2018.