Samuel L. Jackson On How He Got The Purple Lightsaber For The Prequel Trilogy.

Mace WinduIn an interview with MTV News, Jackson revealed that first George Lucas wasn’t a big fan of the idea to give him a different color (not blue or green) lightsaber. First Mace Windu was refused a purple lightsaber.

 

 

From MTV (via Yahoo):

“Every ‘Star Wars’ has its own thing,” he said. “Even George changed stuff, and when I asked him for a purple lightsaber, he was like: ‘no, lightsabers are two colours’.”

 

“I’m like ‘Dude, I’m like, high up on the Jedi hierarchy, Yoda’s my best friend, I’ve been a Jedi longer than anybody except for him, really. When you think about it…’. And then next thing I know, he gave me a purple lightsaber.”

 

 

 


 

 

Also Yahoo reminded us of an old interview with Jackson where he explained the real reason behind why he wanted that purple blade:

“We had this big arena,” he told The Graham Norton Show in 2013. “This fight scene with all these Jedi and they’re fightin’ or whatever. And I was like, ‘well s—-, I wanna be able to find myself in this big ol’ scene’. So I said to George, ‘You think maybe I can get a purple lightsaber?’”

 

 

JediGeonosisArena

 

“When I came back to do reshoots, [Lucas] said, ‘I want to show you something, this has already caused a s—- storm online’. And he had the purple lightsaber! And I was like ‘yeah!’ And so I could find myself in that big fight scene. There’s like 300 lightsabers, and I’m like, ‘There I am, right there’.”

 

 

In a similar fashion now Kylo Ren’s crossguard lightsaber from The Force Awakens teaser trailer caused a huge buzz among the fans. I’m sure the new lightsaber will grown on the fans and we’re confident in J.J. Abrams’ words:

“It was a number of conversations [that led to the design]. It was a sketch that became a whole thing and, you know, this was not done without a lot of conversation and it’s fun to see people have the conversation that we had, but in reverse.”

 

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Founder of SWNN, MNN and The Cantina forums.

Born on April 24, 1980.

Val Trichkov (Viral Hide)

Founder of SWNN, MNN and The Cantina forums.Born on April 24, 1980.

57 thoughts on “Samuel L. Jackson On How He Got The Purple Lightsaber For The Prequel Trilogy.

  • February 16, 2015 at 3:09 pm
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    It would’ve been AWESOME if Mace’s purple-saber had been the worst thing about the Prequels…

    • February 16, 2015 at 5:31 pm
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      Prequels are awesome. And purpule lightsaber is awesome.

      Waaaay better than sithalibur.

      • February 17, 2015 at 3:49 am
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        the prequels are awesome? It what sense?

        • February 17, 2015 at 7:51 pm
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          Ohh! A comment bashing the prequels? How original.

  • February 16, 2015 at 3:14 pm
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    Extra information: His lightsaber also has “B.M.F.” (Bad Mother F*) etched in, as a Pulp Fiction reference 😛

    • February 16, 2015 at 10:08 pm
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      also a Shaft reference

  • February 16, 2015 at 3:22 pm
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    I read his answers with his voice in my mind. 😮

  • February 16, 2015 at 3:25 pm
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    “Every ‘Star Wars’ has its own thing,” he said. “Even George changed stuff, and when I asked him for a purple lightsaber, he was like: ‘no, lightsabers are two colours’.”

    Ok… Blue, Red and green… thats three colours. Nice one George.

    • February 16, 2015 at 3:43 pm
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      lol

    • February 16, 2015 at 4:32 pm
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      I think he meant Jedi colors. Altough it would be nice to see yellow or orange lightsabers in TFA

    • February 16, 2015 at 11:43 pm
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      And it was just blue and red until he changed it for ROTJ.

    • February 18, 2015 at 12:24 am
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      You can see his actual response in a video. I don’t know Sam’s initial question. I think he just asked which colours there were and George replied, “Well good guys have blue and green. Bad guys have red.”. Then Sam says, “Hmmm, no purple in there?” to which George responses, “You might get purple.”

  • February 16, 2015 at 3:35 pm
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    Mace Windu sucks. Jacksons acting is just laughable.

    • February 16, 2015 at 5:16 pm
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      I went to go see Kingsman last night… I thought Jackson’s character was a bit too silly for me to care much about the story. I’m not sure if the acting is his fault… he was awesome in Pulp Fiction & Django.

      Mark Hammil was in Kingsman, he did a fantastic job, he can do a great British accent! (although again, the character was a bit *too silly*) I really liked kick ass but Kinsman… meh.

      • February 17, 2015 at 12:46 am
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        Dude, how could you go to the movies and not watch 50 shades of grey?

        • February 17, 2015 at 3:14 pm
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          Because it’s a God-awful movie? You couldn’t pay me to see that crap.

      • February 17, 2015 at 4:56 pm
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        I guess you didn’t get the part of the movie being a funny, over the top, secret service film. /facepalm

    • February 16, 2015 at 6:15 pm
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      Despite him always playing himself, I manage to see him as his characters in a lot of his movies. If you can’t, that’s your problem.

    • February 16, 2015 at 8:23 pm
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      Yeah well, Mace Windu wasn’t that big a role, most of the time he just sits and talks, at least Jackson made him kinda cool. I bet he could play that role while sleepwalking. You don’t always get an epiphany watching him play, that’s because he is in a lot of lame movies, for the money I guess. Still Jackson did a way better job in the prequels than Liam Neeson and Darth Bad Acting. Some of their scenes are still hard to watch for me, like soaps. But I don’t think that was there fault alone, maybe the director had a bad day too.

  • February 16, 2015 at 3:38 pm
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    Lucas basically just screwed his own lore to please a hollywood actor. shows where his priorities lay… good riddance.

    • February 16, 2015 at 6:00 pm
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      Thats better than the way george rr martin acts. Atleast lucas doesnt give his finger to fans on video.

    • February 16, 2015 at 11:55 pm
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      What lore is that? That there’s only green and blue lightsabers? Why not purple? It destroys the lore?

  • February 16, 2015 at 3:46 pm
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    Mace Windu was a dreadful, one note, one tone character, whose only distinct trait was a purple lightsaber. Good riddance I say.

    • February 16, 2015 at 7:22 pm
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      A dreadful character, for dreadful films.

  • February 16, 2015 at 3:56 pm
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    I thought the whole purple lightsabre thing was done and dusted a long time ago why bring it up now?

  • February 16, 2015 at 4:15 pm
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    I think the “only two colors” quote from Lucas was in reference to the light side. Blue and green for Jedi and red for Sith. But all that’s out the window now, so …yeah.

  • February 16, 2015 at 4:20 pm
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    Didnt green only come for technical reasons in ROTJ because of the blue sky on tatoonie.
    The blue wouldnt show right?

  • February 16, 2015 at 4:30 pm
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    DAMN wrong site… this is the episode 2 board on theforce.net? my bad i am off to the episode 7 news site!

    ignore the skeletons still waiting on that luke costume sketch… arrrrrrrg.

    • February 16, 2015 at 6:10 pm
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      Nice find sherlock. Give me a link please.

  • February 16, 2015 at 4:50 pm
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    The Crossguard lightsaber is pure a fans-movie, fan fiction nightmare.

    It cannot even be considered Expanded Universe, because not even the worst SW comics have attempted something so stupid and out of place.

    And I fear that this is just the beginning…

    Good job JJ-Disney, really good job.

    • February 16, 2015 at 5:24 pm
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      Actually, its canon.

    • February 19, 2015 at 8:17 am
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      You realize that a crossguard lightsaber was actually in the EU and looked FAR dumber. Look it up and be glad they didn’t put that thing in the movie. All I want is for them to use the lightsaber Tonfa from the EU.

  • February 16, 2015 at 5:44 pm
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    Glowing purple almost always looks horrible in movies. It gives the impression that a hammy production designer is mis-applying conceptual thinking where aesthetic thinking would have been better (trying to be different instead of trying to make the scene look right and look good). Even the purple-pink goo in The Matrix struck me as a blight in an otherwise visually unified, distinct, and awesome looking film.

  • February 16, 2015 at 5:44 pm
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    The purple was the dividing line between RED and BLUE. Thus his fall to Sidious made easy (he wasn’t BLUE enough)… there’s your explanation.

  • February 16, 2015 at 6:08 pm
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    F*cking darth vader were was a one note black man, i dont see any complaints about him.
    But “mace windu is dead” fans say. So is every other black man in star wars so far.

    I got news for you. If you think anything in the previous movies are not worth mentioning on this site, piss off. This is a star wars fansite. They will even switch name to another site when the movie is out.

    Sincerely to every Angryswfan ever

  • February 16, 2015 at 6:21 pm
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    i’ve learnt before the purple saber of Mace Windu was an interpretation of his ability to master the Dark Side through his duellist style, the Vaapad. I think each color have a signification in Jedi hierarchy as blue for Sentinels, green for Counselors. The yellow and orange had signification too but i can’t remember.

    • February 17, 2015 at 2:34 am
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      You know they make up all that stuff after the movie is finished, right?

  • February 16, 2015 at 6:59 pm
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    One simple thing that’s better than the whole OT.

  • February 16, 2015 at 8:39 pm
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    There were only three colours. Just sayin…

  • February 16, 2015 at 9:07 pm
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    I read this over 10 years ago, he also got to keep the lightsaber, is that coming out in a part 2 artical? It must be a slow day for news.

  • February 16, 2015 at 9:55 pm
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    Doesn’t the use of a purple saber denote the Jedi’s partial use of the dark side? As a master Jedi Mace Windu was able to tap the power of the dark side without falling to the dark side.

  • February 16, 2015 at 10:53 pm
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    Yes he may have partially mastered the dark side but if Anikan allowed him to strike down Sidous I think Mace would had fallen to the dark side. Makes you wonder.

    • February 18, 2015 at 9:27 pm
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      Wha?

  • February 17, 2015 at 1:42 am
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    There was no controversy online over Sam Jackson’s purple saber because he is Samuel Jackson end of story.

    The cross saber is lazy and stupid unnecessary gimmick for toy purposes.

    • February 17, 2015 at 2:37 am
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      Ummm how does a cross-saber sell more toys than anther one they would’ve chosen? Also, JJ doesn’t have any stake in the merchandise market (unlike George did).

  • February 17, 2015 at 3:51 am
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    Maybe Daisy Ridley will get a Pink lightsaber and Boyega will get a black lightsaber

  • February 17, 2015 at 6:00 am
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    Honestly I love the purple saber. Its not like Lucas NEVER introduced a new color lightsaber. In my mind it should either be ONLY blue and red for good and evil or it should be a full spectrum of colors. If luke can make a green saber with little formal training I don’t see why there wouldn’t be other colors. I doubt it will happen but I’m pulling for a yellow saber in the sequel trilogy (Jedi Sentinel FTW!). Really the darksaber is the only new saber I wasn’t onboard with.

    • February 17, 2015 at 2:26 pm
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      Yellow Sabers are already canon. See Ahsoka Tano’s second, shorter shoto.

  • February 17, 2015 at 6:30 am
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    Samuel L. Jackson looks like the Sandman in that video.

  • February 17, 2015 at 3:22 pm
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    alright, I know no one will agree, but…Given the current rumors about TFA’s plot device (Luke’s lightsaber/hand is the macguffin bc Ren needs the special crystal to open the Sith tomb), I keep thinking that it would make MUCH more sense if that light saber turned out to be Windu’s. 1. His hand got got off on Coruscant and is presumably more likely to be recovered than Luke’s, which falls aimlessly through the atmosphere of a gas planet…2) it might give real meaning to Windus purple blade if the crystal had some Sith significance and was only used by one of the Jedi Order’s most accomplished leaders. 3) it also is a tidy but not-too-stupid way to tie back to the prequels a bit. 4) it makes less sense that Luke’s first lightsaber is somehow “special” when it was clearly Anakins second (or third or fourth) replacement saber, no matter how many bad child actors you murder with it. Thoughts?

  • February 17, 2015 at 4:38 pm
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    Mace Windu’s ligthsaber is unique, so i’m cool with that. Sithcaliber makes a lot of sense on a practical level so whatever.

    Now as for the Inquisitor and his spinning monstrosity of an excuse for a lightsaber… WHAT?! THE HELL?! IS THAT?!

  • February 18, 2015 at 1:24 am
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    Yeah, my racist uncle is constantly going on about how “the blacks” are always becoming galactic zen-like leaders of jedi-type mystical orders. Damn you Samuel Jackson! You proved my uncle right!

  • February 18, 2015 at 9:24 pm
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    So Mace Windu has a gay lightsaber. So what?

  • February 19, 2015 at 12:06 am
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    to me the use given to lightsaber in the new movies is totally wrong, that scene with hundreds of lightsabers is awful, a total disgrace. the light-saber is not an arm to be used in a major conflict, the lightsaber is a noble arm to be used mano a mano, or for a sudden act of personal defense but not for “industrial use”.

    • February 20, 2015 at 2:52 pm
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      The Jedi were forced into the conflict at geonosis by the threat of the sixth returning .thats y ur argument has no relevance whatsoever “general kenobi you fought along side my father in the clone wars” so it has been written so it has come to pass, the fact that the clone wars conflict was portrayed poorly by gl has no bearing whatsoever on the fact that the Jedi did fight in a war as mentioned by obi wan as well in Anh .It was Star Wars lore from the beginning

  • February 20, 2015 at 2:52 pm
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    The Jedi were forced into the conflict at geonosis by the threat of the sixth returning .thats y ur argument has no relevance whatsoever “general kenobi you fought along side my father in the clone wars” so it has been written so it has come to pass, the fact that the clone wars conflict was portrayed poorly by gl has no bearing whatsoever on the fact that the Jedi did fight in a war as mentioned by obi wan as well in Anh .It was Star Wars lore from the beginning

  • February 20, 2015 at 2:53 pm
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    Stupid spell check sith not sixth

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