The ‘swordmaster’ on the Star Wars prequels has said that George Lucas cut probably the best lightsaber fight of the entire series.
Veteran movie stuntman Nick Gillard, who choreographed the lightsaber duels in the prequels, revealed to Entertainment Weekly that it came in Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith.
Read more: Lando Calrissian’s full name revealed
It’s the moment when Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan Kenobi is confronted with six of General Grievous’s bodyguard droids.
According to Gillard, McGregor ‘trained for weeks’ to master the sequence in rehearsals.
(Credit: Lucasfilm/Fox)
However, when it came to shooting the movie, the production was running behind schedule, so rather than film the complex, time-consuming scene, Lucas came up with the plan that Obi-Wan would simply used the force to drop a huge lump of metal on them instead.
“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!’” Gillard explained.
Read more: J.J. Abrams hints at LGBTQ representation in Rise of Skywalker
You can check out the aborted fight – which has echoes of the infamous Indiana Jones market scene – here.
As well as co-ordinating the lightsaber fights, Gillard also had a small role as a Jedi Master in the movie, called Cin Drallig (his own name backwards).
McGregor will be reprising his role as Skywalker (and Vader) mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi in a new series for Disney’s new streaming platform Disney+.
Meanwhile, the new Star Wars movie, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, lands in the UK on December 19.
