George Lucas cut the most elaborate lightsaber duel from the Star Wars prequels
By Daniel Roman
With only a few days to go until The Rise of Skywalker hits theaters, it should come as no surprise that new and intriguing tidbits of Star Wars news are surfacing around the internet. One of the most titillating comes from Entertainment Weekly, which got the chance to sit down with stunt coordinator Nick Gillard, one of the masterminds behind the insanely well-choreographed duels of the prequel trilogy. And according to him, the best duel of the series was left on the cutting room floor!
This came up when Gillard was talking about the fight between Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon Jinn, and Darth Maul fight at the end of The Phantom Menace, widely considered a pretty awesome scene.
But according to Gillard, there is another, “better one.” Remember General Grievous, the battle droid commander Obi-Wan tracks down and kills in Revenge of the Sith? Apparently, the Jedi was originally planned to first fight six of the droid’s bodyguards at once in an epic showdown that would have made Darth Maul gape in awe. Actor Ewan McGregor spent weeks preparing for the sequence…
But when it came down to it, there just wasn’t time in the crammed production schedule to film it. George Lucas made the call to give it the saber, so to speak. Instead of the showdown to end all showdowns, Lucas decided to just have Obi-Wan use the Force to drop a piece of the ceiling on the battle droids. “It was the most complicated fight we ever did, and George said, ‘I’m really sorry, I’m going to drop a container on five of them!’”
And drop it he did:
As much as I enjoy a good lightsaber duel, personally, I think Lucas made the right choice. After all, if Obi-wan could win a fight that easily, why wouldn’t he? It’s the sort of thing you could imagine Yoda doing, which makes it a better display of Obi-Wan’s growth as a Jedi than one more crazy lightsaber battle would have. And he does go on to fight General Grievous for about six more minutes after the bodyguards go down.
What do you think? Would you have rather seen Obi-Wan duke it out with the droids? Sound off below!
Next. The Rise of Skywalker’s “big character plot twist” ties back to A New Hope. dark
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