How much did audiences know before release?

I recall following a website called "The Padawan's Guide" before Episode II came out, and things like photos of costumes slowly trickled out. In fact, it was interest in the costumes for the prequels that got me started on following that website.

However, there was an incident that took place 6-months to a year before the movie came out. Some hacker called "Supershadow" stole a copy of the script for the film, and leaked it online, and I found it by accident while searching for pictures of Padmé Amidala from the new movie. So some of us learned the biggest spoilers early. I learned about all the deleted scenes involving Padmé and Anakin visiting her family (so the audience would have learned about her family and one of her early [and tragic] assignments when she first was working in politics). It even had a scene in that didn't even make it to the extras on the dvd, where Anakin was playing around with those herd creatures in the meadow while courting Padmé, and he uses his Force powers to tame one enough to let them ride on its back for a few minutes. "The Padawan's Guide" even has 2 bluescreen BTS photos of this scene.

I also found out about Jar Jar Binks being responsible for voting for Palpatine to get emergency powers (it made me livid and I now hate him far worse than others do for his behavior in Episode I). I found it interesting that in the original script, when Padmé was in the arena and getting attacked by the Nexu, her entire top was ripped off and not merely slicing her in the back and baring her midriff like in the final film. The script mentioned the wedding too, but no details on any of it, except its location and that only Padmé, Anakin, and the Priest were there.

Not everyone outside the fan community knew about this leaked script, and Lucasfilm did everything it could to have it erased from the internet as soon as possible, so not everyone remembers the incident, and many people only learned what happened from watching the film.

We just knew there'd be lots of scenes of people sitting around board rooms.

I knew beforehand several plot points

Anakin was on his way towards becoming Darth Vader
Obi Wan and Yoda weren't going to die in this movie
I knew for sure that Anakin and Padme were going to hook up
I also knew that Palpatine would continue his rise in power

I actually don't remember too many specific rumors in the time just before release (at least ones that weren't obviously made-up). There were actually more Episode II rumors before Episode I's release, believe it or not! I think it's mostly because after Episode I we were kind of able to tell most of the "big" stuff was going to happen in Episode III and that Episode II was mostly setup. But let's see what I can recall...

1. In 1999 there was a pretty widespread rumor that Episode II would be called "Rise of the Empire" and Episode III would be called "Fall of the Jedi."

2. A LOT of (really dumb) speculation that Leonardo Dicaprio was going to be cast as Anakin. Everyone seemed to agree this was dumb and unlikely and yet the rumor just wouldn't die.

3. As Episode I ended with the Gungan leader shouting "Peace!", Episode II would begin with him shouting "War!"

4. It was generally expected that Episode II would be "the one about the Clone Wars," to the point where some folks more or less expected it to be titled "Star Wars: Episode II - The Clone Wars." This wasn't completely wrong, but I think the impression most people had was that the war would've started near the beginning of the film, or perhaps would already be in progress.

5. Early on (say, in the first year or so after Episode I came out) there was some speculation that Anakin would become Darth Vader or at least have turned evil by the end of the film, but as we got closer to release the more everyone seemed to accept that was going to be saved for Episode III.

6. There was a lot of disgruntled musing about possible outrageous plot twists involving midichlorians or Jar Jar, including one rumor that Jar Jar would be found to have a high midichlorian count and subsequently start his Jedi training.

7. About the only thing that I think was a genuine leak was that we would see the plans for the Death Star (though most assumed it was more than just the cameo).

8. Another one that emerged shortly after Episode I: Darth Maul would return as a clone. Because, you know, Clone Wars.

To be fair, there were Star Wars prequel novels well before Episode 1 came out. So people who had read them probably had their own ideas on what was getting adapted. I myself hadn't read them though.

Oh! I should add: it was a couple weeks before release that word got out about a Yoda lightsaber duel. Honestly, in that period just before and after opening weekend the "Yoda fight" was easily the single buzziest thing about it.

Now, you'll probably find few people willing to admit it, but it must be said that at the time "the Yoda fight" went down like gangbusters. People who'd heard about it were excited and anxious to see it, those who didn't were amazed and happily surprised, people clapped and cheered Yoda on. That moment was 100% a crowdpleaser. Yes, it was ridiculous and everybody knew it. But people loved Yoda, and seeing him open up a can of whoopass out of nowhere was just too gosh-darned sweet to resist.

The novel for the film came out in early May of 2002 before the film was released, but most of the story details were known to those of us on TheForce.net’s forums. There were literally hundreds, if not thousands, of posts there daily.

Those were great times.

I used to hang out at a site back in that period titled "THE FORCE.NET" and basically, the fan forums pretty much pieced together the plot, not to mention, we bagged on the title pretty hard, but were pleased to see Jango Fett