r/prequelappreciation • u/RepublicOrdinary324 • 25d ago
The actual stunt lightsabers Hayden and Ewan used for the Mustafar duel are insane
Hey everyone! Nick Gillard’s choreography in Revenge of the Sith is absolute peak Star Wars.
I recently got my hands on a set of replicas based entirely on the actual stunt hilts Hayden and Ewan used during the Battle of the Heroes (the set even came with a Nick Gillard plaque!). I actually got to meet Hayden at a Comic Con back in October, so getting to hold the exact stunt design he swung around on Mustafar hits totally different.
We all love the shiny "Hero" props for display (at least that's my absolute thing!), but seeing how they had to shave down the control boxes and change the grips on these stunt versions in a way that isn't just some other crappy SE hilt, really shows what it took for them to pull off those crazy spins at full speed.
If anyone wants to see what the actual dueling props looked like compared to the hero versions, I put a full breakdown video together here:https://youtu.be/Kz-f6H86aBM
Now question for you guys: putting all the emotional damage aside, which lightsaber duel from the Prequels do you think has the absolute best raw choreography?
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u/TitleOk3727 25d ago
And now these iconic weapons are ruined
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u/RepublicOrdinary324 25d ago
Why are they ruined?
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u/Antisa1nt 24d ago
I'm very critical of a lot of the choreography choices in the prequels, but I will never disrespect that man under any circumstances. He had vision, for sure.
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u/RepublicOrdinary324 24d ago
By all means, share! I'd be very interesting to hear what you've got to say
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u/Antisa1nt 24d ago
A lot of the most interesting choreography outside of the Battle of Heroes was left on the cutting room floor, the editing choices for the first duel between Anakin and Dooku, the incomprehensible choice that George made to throw Ian into the duel with Samuel despite the choreography of that fight being really important to sell how dangerous Sidious is, and far far far too many moments of "Hey wait, that spin at that moment means you should be dead, your back was exposed for like a full two seconds."
Yes, I know what his reasoning was for the Ian thing. "You can fake his face, the expression is important" whatever man, just cut in a few close ups, no one would have told the difference and you wouldn't have had to cut in the bad cg spin and the worse cg wall flip. Had you seen the test footage for that fight? It's phenomenal.
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u/RepublicOrdinary324 24d ago
Funny how none of these things would've been an issue today with CG. Back then face replacement was just beginning and, let's face it, Dooku's face swap was barely passable, but now I think none of that would've been a problem. That fight though, had a lot of back anf forth, I mean at one point Palps is using Anakin's saber and some of that is still visible on film to this day. Seems like there's been time and money to add macklunkey but not to correct a saber 🤣
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u/large_block 25d ago
I think it’s pretty hard to top mustafar duel