10 Important Star Wars Details That Are Almost Never Mentioned
3. How Maz Kanata Acquired Luke's Lightsaber
When Maz Kanata pulls Luke Skywalker's blue lightsaber from a box and hands it to Finn in The Force Awakens, Han Solo asks her where she got it. Her response? "A good question, for another time."
In hindsight, her refusal to give an explanation feels startlingly similar to Poe's "somehow... Palpatine has returned" in The Rise of Skywalker, and though this particular detail arguably isn't as important, it's nonetheless frustrating that the movies never reveal how Maz acquired a lightsaber that was presumed lost deep within Cloud City. After all, that lightsaber plays a crucial role in the sequel trilogy, so it feels a bit lazy to just dismiss where it came from.
Some fans have head-canonized that because Maz was a "pirate queen", she acquired it via her connections to the smuggling world. After all, she's lived a long life, so had plenty of time to stumble across it. Other Star Wars media has discussed the lightsaber's post-Luke fate too, revealing that a random Ugnaught found it on Cloud City, and kept it from being destroyed.
But as for how it made its way into Maz's hands? That's a detail for another time.