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.

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:

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(Via Wikipedia and Wookiepedia)