George Lucas’ decision to tame down the lightsaber duel in Return of the Jedi ended up hurting the Star Wars franchise as a whole.

Image by Joey Gannon, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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SUMMARY

Return of the Jedi, the conclusion of the original Star Wars trilogy was marked by a climatic duel between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader, which was toned down.
In an interview, director Richard Marquand revealed George Lucas intentionally toned down the fight choreography of the climax to let the emotional stakes shine.

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Return of the Jedi marked the end of the original Star Wars trilogy, which saw Luke Skywalker confront Darth Vader for the final time. During the film’s climax, Luke and Vader come face to face after their epic duel at the end of Empire Strikes Back. However, with the knowledge that Vader is Luke’s father, the emotional stakes are higher than before.

Return of the Jedi marked the end of the original Star Wars trilogy (Credit: Lucasfilm).

During an interview, director Richard Marquand revealed how the final fight was initially supposed to be much grander in scope. However, franchise creator George Lucas later came up with the reasoning for toning down the final battle. Here is what Marquand revealed about the fight between Luke and Vader, which resulted in the most decisive scene in the franchise looking so tame.

Return of the Jedi Director Revealed How George Lucas Tamed Down the Film’s Final Fight

Director Richard Marquand helmed Return of the Jedi, the final installment in the original Star Wars trilogy. The film saw Luke Skywalker return to face his father, Darth Vader, with the film’s climax setting up a rematch between the two.

George Lucas toned down the fight between Luke and Vader in Return of the Jedi (Credit: Lucasfilm).

In The Making of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, Marquand spoke about the final fight between Luke and Vader. The director explained that the idea of restraining the fight scene was a decision that came directly from George Lucas. Marquand recalled:

George said that it doesn’t have to be bigger because basically, it can’t be. George is very blunt. He said, ‘It’s just a couple of guys banging sticks against each other.’

From the director’s words, it is evident that Lucas did not want the fight scene to be complex in terms of the choreography.

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Furthermore, Marquand explained that Lucas pointed out why the scene’s stakes were greater than the previous fight between Luke and Vader. The filmmaker stated that the fight scene was already much grander in scale because of the emotional stakes and the internal conflict between the two characters.

George Lucas’ Return of the Jedi Decision Hurt Star Wars and the Prequels Prove Why

In the same excerpt from the book, Marquand revealed that he later saw the merit of Lucas’ argument regarding keeping the scene’s fight choreography simple. As a result, the climactic battle remains rather tame in comparison to the much more brutal fight between Luke and Vader at the end of The Empire Strikes Back.

If he gives in to the dark side he will become like his father, and if he doesn’t give in he will probably be killed. It is this conflict that will make the scene very exciting.

Marquand made the above statement, highlighting how the emotional stakes of the fight shine through because of the simple choreography and movements of the climactic battle. Despite having this clarity over shaping the fight scenes, Lucas would eventually forego his own rule during the prequels.

George Lucas abandoned his own rule for Revenge of the Sith (Credit: Lucasfilm).

The climactic battle between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker in Revenge of the Sith is the opposite of Lucas’ original approach. In the fight, the emotional stakes become lost in the epic lightsaber duel between the two characters.

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Ultimately, despite being one of the best duels in the entire franchise, the scene hurts the franchise as a whole. Since the fight between Vader and Luke is the climax of the arc Lucas set out to tell, the simple choreography of that fight is overcrowded by the more glorious duels in the prequels.