Mark Hamill Reunites with his ‘Return of the Jedi’ Lightsaber Prop

Photo courtesy of Comic-Con HQ

 

Up until the very final scene of The Force Awakens, it had been over three decades since Mark Hamill’s last Star Wars movie. But even though Return of the Jedi came out in 1983, Luke Skywalker hasn’t forgotten his lightsaber, because he recognized it immediately when he reunited with the famous prop.

 

From Outer Places, by Jonathan Kesh:

 

As a part of his online series Mark Hamill’s Pop Culture Quest, part of the streaming site Comic-Con HQ, Hamill goes around looking for rare collector’s items hidden away throughout geek culture. But in a teaser released to GeekTyrant in advance of an upcoming episode, Hamill came across something much closer to home. Here’s the footage of Hamill seeing the original prop for his green lightsaber in Episode VI for the first time in years (he swears he didn’t know about this beforehand):

 

 

 

 

The prop’s current owner attempts to explain its history, noting it was the same prop used by Alec Guinness (Obi-Wan) as his special effects lightsaber in A New Hope. But that’s as far as he gets before Hamill, the memories visibly flooding back to him, launches into his own experiences swinging the thing around on camera. According to him, the blades themselves were poles covered in super-reflective movie screen material, and whenever he activated his weapon, he’d have to freeze so crew members could come pop the blade on before running out of sight. He also had a wire running down his sleeve to a battery pack, to keep the hilt’s motor running.

 

Whether or not Skywalker will swing his lightsaber again in Episode VIII is something we won’t know until the end of the year (unless a trailer spoils it). It’s a safe bet though, even if it’ll be the blue lightsaber he used in the first two movies, not the green one he’s holding here. It can’t be the green one, because it belongs to this guy now. Or yes, they could just make a new prop.

 

 

Star Wars: Episode VIII comes out on December 15, 2017, while the next episode of Mark Hamill’s Pop Culture Quest goes up this week on Comic-Con HQ.

 

Mark Hamill in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1983)

 

 

This article first appeared on Outerplaces.com

 

 

+ posts

39 thoughts on “Mark Hamill Reunites with his ‘Return of the Jedi’ Lightsaber Prop

  • January 18, 2017 at 1:33 am
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    Wow. Noice.

  • January 18, 2017 at 1:36 am
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    you can’t win kylo, if you strike me down i shall become more powerful then you can possibly imagine.

    • January 18, 2017 at 10:28 pm
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      You’re so right.

  • January 18, 2017 at 2:21 am
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    Mark always just sounds like a great guy.

  • January 18, 2017 at 2:40 am
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    I got really excited for a second before I realized what this post was actually about. I really hope Luke actually does wield his green blade at some point in episode 8, though I know there are some rumors to the contrary. Still, cool to see some nostalgia talk.

    • January 18, 2017 at 7:39 am
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      I sware if we go a whole movie without him wielding his saber I’m done with Disney.

      • January 18, 2017 at 5:37 pm
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        What a silly thing to say. Disney didn’t decide if he doesn’t use his lightsaber and your love for star wars is so dependent on that? Weird.

  • January 18, 2017 at 3:45 am
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    Hmm, he didn’t appear to recognize it as the story suggests. Of course, anyone knows what a light saber looks like and would have the same “wow” reaction to seeing one. Mark first thought it was a replica, and then only seemed to know it was from Jedi when the guy who pulled it out told him. I love Mark, so this is not a cut on him — just on the story narrative here.

  • January 18, 2017 at 3:55 am
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    Wondering why it was on the collectors market and not in the Lucasfilm archives.

    • January 18, 2017 at 10:25 pm
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      Because Lucasfilm used to not give a shit about their props. The old Death Star prop was kept in a storage locker, and when they didn’t renew the storage locker, the company that owned the locker just trashed the prop. no one shed a tear.

      • January 19, 2017 at 8:09 pm
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        That was true of the first Star Wars, when ILM was housed in a crappy warehouse in Van Nuys, but then they moved to Northern California, built the ranch and the archives building and became much more conscious about saving stuff from Empire and Jedi.

        • January 19, 2017 at 9:50 pm
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          Not conscious enough, I guess.

          • January 21, 2017 at 6:18 am
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            Looked at a vid of the LFL archives and they have multiple versions of the Luke Jedi saber. So some duplicate props make it onto the collectors market, some get saved.

          • January 21, 2017 at 4:09 pm
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            That’s good to know.

      • February 3, 2017 at 8:23 pm
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        That same Death Star prop is now part of a private collection in Seattle. I’ve seen it. And it’s frickin’ amazing.

    • February 3, 2017 at 8:28 pm
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      Lucasfilm saved and archived plenty of props and production pieces from their movies, but no effort was made to save everything. And stuff was taken home by employees, lost in moves, or discarded for other reasons. From what I can understand, a special effort was made to archive really special and iconic pieces or stuff that might have use later on.

      Really, the mentality was quite different back them. This stuff having collector value wasn’t really a non-issue. When LOST ended, there was a massive auction of nearly every prop, outfit, and effect from the series. It was pretty obvious that there was a deliberate effort made to save and preserve everything for this very reason. This just wasn’t part of the thinking in the late 70’s and early 80’s.

      If you get involved in the world of Star Wars prop collecting, there are all sorts of stories about things turning up here and there.

  • January 18, 2017 at 4:10 am
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    living in the uk i cant legally veiw this anyone know of any uploads of this apart from the first two episodes
    cheers

    • January 18, 2017 at 10:24 pm
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      “living in the uk i cant legally veiw this”

      I hate the world sometimes. Sorry about that, m9.

  • January 18, 2017 at 4:14 am
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    Whoa whoa whoa, how does this Schmoe have this, and it is not in the lfl archives?

    • January 18, 2017 at 3:03 pm
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      There’s a whole ton of famous star wars movie props that are in the hands of regular collectors rather than lucasfilm. The original deathstar prop was actually trashed when they didn’t renew the storage locker it was kept in and they just went “Meh” XD

  • January 18, 2017 at 6:50 am
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    Always been my favorite lightsaber of all seven films. I could never get on board with the big bright childlike buttons on the PT era ones.

    • January 18, 2017 at 6:53 am
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      I hope we do see it in VIII or something similar. It doesn’t seem like he would have had time to run and get it after throwing it away in Jedi, Especially since that room was so dark and full of hidden alcoves. I think he did have it in the old EU but they never explained if it was that one or he just remade it.

      • January 18, 2017 at 8:28 am
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        Its on his belt in the endor ceremony and in the canon shattered empire comic, so he must have used the force to grab it on his way out I suppose. Either way I just hope we see it in action in 8 or 9…would be a pitty if he dosn’t wield a saber anymore. It is such an iconic blade that honestly after years of EU i associate with luke skywalker much more than the blue blade which I feel is more anakin’s weapon

        • January 18, 2017 at 5:36 pm
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          That’s weird b/c having seen the OT first and seeing Luke wield that blue blade in two movies and Anakin in only 1, it will always be Luke’s to me.

        • January 18, 2017 at 6:05 pm
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          Wow. I never thought of that. Well, I guess there wouldn’t be any sense in leaving it behind on the Death Star.

  • January 18, 2017 at 10:55 am
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    He looks really good, not the light saber I mean. But Mark. Has his sparkling eyse back and lost some weight and I here the young luke voice again. Is this because he is back in his roll or something?

    • January 18, 2017 at 5:53 pm
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      I was thinking the same thing. I have great feeling about this. Great to see him looking and feeling good!

  • January 18, 2017 at 3:03 pm
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    I actually watched the first two episodes of this show and it was a hoot. Mark Hamill is such a joker that just listening to him go on about nerd things for 30 minutes is gold

  • January 18, 2017 at 3:59 pm
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    Just too cool…hell, they could just make a movie about Luke’s adventures and I’d be on it like white on rice!

    • January 18, 2017 at 5:35 pm
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      they made 3…

      • January 18, 2017 at 8:22 pm
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        Lol…you know what I mean.

      • January 20, 2017 at 1:25 am
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        Always three there are

  • January 18, 2017 at 4:47 pm
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    I love Luke and mark hamill. Such a nice awesome guy. I always liked Luke he was my favorite Jedi. I need to watch this show. Episode VIII is gonna be the best

  • January 18, 2017 at 6:16 pm
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    Mark’s looking in good form, can’t wait to see him properly in VIII

  • January 18, 2017 at 8:51 pm
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    If you watch closely, when Mark says “Wow, this is really cool.” His mouth isn’t moving, and the audio sounds a LOT different than the rest of the interview. He definitely didn’t recognize the prop, and by Mark’s own admission on many a Star Wars Celebration panel, he never really memorized the names of characters, vehicles or things like that. He called an AT-AT “that walky thingy” when I saw him at SW Celebration in 2015.

    Still a cool story, but Mark definitely wasn’t as moved as the headline suggest.s

    • January 18, 2017 at 9:24 pm
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      He narrates during the show segments

  • January 18, 2017 at 9:24 pm
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    The thing I take from it he says he hasn’t seen it in years…does this suggest he doesn’t have one like it in ep8?

    • January 19, 2017 at 12:10 am
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      the original i’m assuming. if he does use his lightsaber it would be a new prop.

  • January 20, 2017 at 5:25 pm
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    [Kind of] spoiler-free tidbits about Ep. VIII:

    – 6 fight choreographers were brought in for a pivotal sequence.
    – The [working] title was actually mentioned in TFA.
    – Jony Ive was hired to personally design Rey’s new light saber.
    – Snoke’s ‘lair’ lies within an asteroid near the edge of the [known] galaxy.
    – Luke is very humorous in this movie. [Think Yoda after being stranded alone 20 years.]
    – Luke’s classic era X-Wing is with him on Ahch-To, as is his lightsaber.
    – Calrissian owns a casino.
    – First line in the film is: “You’re late”
    – There is a Force ghost scene.
    – Someone loses an arm.
    – Light sabers don’t work very well under water 😉

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