Daisy Ridley has revealed that a subtle change to the lightsaber props used in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker will have a considerable knock-on effect on the whole movie.
In a video feature for Wired (highlighted by Comic Book), the Rey actress let slip that the lightsabers have been rebuilt for the upcoming Rise of Skywalker to be significantly lighter than those used in The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. This will enable the combat in the new film to be more acrobatic, which Ridley claims was always the intention:
“The interesting thing about this film is that we concentrate more on the fact that they’re light, because the lightsabers [before] were so heavy,” Ridley explained of The Rise of Skywalker. “As Eunice [Huthart] said, who is our new stunt coordinator, it was almost more like broadsword fighting, which isn’t technically what it’s supposed to be, because lightsabers are supposed to be light by nature. So they actually made the lightsabers lighter for us.”
According to Ridley, the lighter-weight props for The Rise of Skywalker have made all the difference. “We, in this film, have perhaps one of the most epic fights in Star Wars,” she claimed, enticingly waggling her eyebrows for emphasis. The fight she’s alluding to could be a duel between Rey and nemesis/ally/love interest/possible family member Kylo Ren, which she described on an episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast. “It’s a great fight. I’ve become such a better fighter, and they made the lightsabers lighter so it actually looks like we’re swinging light and not heavy [swords],” she said, “It felt really epic, and it felt epic even at the time… One can only imagine what it’s gonna look like.”
Star Wars: Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker comes out Dec. 20, 2019.
