‘The Acolyte’ Aiming to Beat ‘The Phantom Menace’ Lightsaber Duels
The cast and crew of The Acolyte are putting a lot of importance in their lightsaber fights, it seems. Dafne Keen has gone on record saying they wanted to film a lightsaber duel that was superior to the “Duel of the Fates” fight sequence between Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon and Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Keen stated her belief that it was the “most iconic” lightsaber fight in the saga, though the prequel trilogy is littered with stunningly choreographed fight sequences (the climactic fight in Revenge of the Sith would probably like a word with her).
Yeah, that was a very frequent conversation we had. It was very much: We want to top the Darth Maul fight — the most iconic fight, I think, in the Star Wars cinematic universe. It’s such an amazing fight and we were all so excited about the saber fights. There’s such a skill and a craft to it that it feels so OG Star Wars and feels so impressive when you see it as a viewer.
It was my favorite part of filming. I loved the whole training process of it. Everyone was very excited about it, which then made it much more fun. Our incredible stunt team created this kind of fusion of different martial arts and we were really trained in how to use the sabers. I feel very comfortable with a sword now, and I know that Charlie does too, and I know that JJ does too. We were all in there for hours a day training, and it was really fun to kind of explore also a different side to the characters within the fighting.
An interesting point that Dafne Keen made was that the lightsaber duels seemed to be based on character — the way each person fights feels unique to their personality — which should hopefully create some memorable fight scenes.
You can show a different aspect of your character. I feel like the way that JJ’s character fights and the way that my character fights are completely different. And also with the way that Charlie’s character fights. I found a lot of Jecki’s repressed parts of her within her fighting. They only came out in the fight scenes, and as someone who really enjoys doing stunts, getting to learn a new skill, it was just really just really fun and such a privilege.
The young actress also revealed she had a similar problem to young Ewan McGregor when he first filmed The Phantom Menace, in that she found herself accidentally making the lightsaber sounds with her mouth while filming.
I got told off for doing that quite a lot. Because the first few times, you’d do it and they’d be like, ‘You need to stop doing that.’ And also, I kept smiling. I was so excited and they kept having to come up to me and be like, ‘Dafne, you need to stop smiling. You’re fighting someone.’ And I’d be like, ‘Oh yeah, I’m sorry. This is just so fun. I love this.’
I remember watching Star Wars when I was a kid, then playing with sticks on the street and being like, ‘I have a saber!’ And now finally getting to learn these incredible choreographies that the stunt team put together was just honestly such a privilege, because we had such an amazing stunt team.
It’s one thing to promise incredible lightsaber fights, but it’s quite another to pull it off. Here’s hoping The Acolyte delivers on those promises when it releases on June 4.
Josh is a huge Star Wars fan, who has spent far too much time wondering if any Star Wars character could defeat Thanos with all the Infinity Stones.
