The film's working title was The Beginning; Lucas later revealed that its true title was The Phantom Menace; a reference to Palpatine hiding his true identity as an evil Sith Lord behind the facade of a well-intentioned public servant.
Radni naziv filma bio je The Beginning (u slobodnom prijevodu Početak), ali Lucas je kasnije otkrio pravi naslov - Fantomska prijetnja, što je referenca na Palpatinea koji svoj pravi identitet zlog Sith Lorda skriva iza fasade dobronamjernog javnog službenika.