A lightsaber battle in Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. The Star Wars films are filled with exciting and unique lightsaber battles. One of the most famous is the one-on-one battle between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker in Revenge of the Sith, officially Episode III of the Star Wars saga.
While Obi-Wan's fight with Anakin was exciting, Lucas deleted his most complicated lightsaber battle from Revenge of the Sith. Stunt coordinator Nick Gillard revealed to EW in 2019 that Obi-Wan was supposed to have a solo fight against General Grievous' six bodyguards, a type of battle that hadn't yet happened in Star Wars. Ewan McGregor trained for weeks to get the choreography down, but Lucas decided on set to change the scene because they were short on time and the fight wasn't essential to the story. Instead, Obi-Wan uses the Force to drop a piece of the ceiling on the guards.
There's no way of knowing just how cool this cut fight scene would have been, but Star Wars: The Last Jedi did something similar with a battle over ten years later. The sequel follows Resistance fighter and future Jedi Rey, who discovers a connection between her mind and that of Jedi-turned-Dark-Side Kylo Ren, a.k.a. Ben Solo. Kylo ultimately goes against Supreme Leader Snoke's orders to kill Rey, killing him instead. The two then face off together against Snoke's eight Praetorian Guards in a scene that reflects and improves upon the deleted Obi-Wan fight.
How The Last Jedi's Scene Improved On Lucas' Idea
Lucas himself knew that the planned fight for Obi-Wan wasn't necessary to the story, albeit a cool concept. With the Rey and Kylo fight, Rian Johnson created a battle that was vital to the plot and the individual character arcs. Rey and Kylo fighting the eight guards back-to-back shows visually how well they work as a team, though they are technically on different sides of the war. While two vs. eight might not seem as impressive as one vs. six, this just s how well the two work together. Neither of them would have been able to take down that many guards alone, but they can do it together.
The fight also shows Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
Rey and Kylo Ren's fight against the Praetorian Guards far outshines the final battle of The Last Jedi between Luke Skywalker and Kylo. It goes to show Lucas was right about how cool such a battle would be but was also right to cut Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith fight. It would now fall flat compared to the Rey and Kylo battle in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which is a far stronger character moment.
