Star Wars: 10 Secrets Of The Lightsaber You Need To Know
1. We Were Meant To See Luke Skywalker Build His Lightsaber
For decades, there were rumours of a deleted scene in Return of the Jedi depicting Luke Skywalker forging his own lightsaber. Only in recent years has this scene been officially released, much to the fanbase's pleasure.
In the scene in question, we see Luke inside a cave with R2-D2 and C-3P0, putting the final touches on his weapon before igniting the blade with one fluid motion. This scene takes place just before the droids venture to Jabba's palace to rescue Han Solo.
According to the novelisation, Luke used the Force to place the kyber crystal correctly into his lightsaber. In the Shadow of the Empire novel, the process is expanded on further, explaining that Luke tracked down materials in Mos Eisley to forge the hilt. Since kyber crystals were rare, he created synthetic kyber himself. Although the best Jedi can manufacture a lightsaber in days, it took Luke took over a month to finalise his.
However, keeping this scene would've spoiled the fact that Luke sent the droids to Jabba's palace as part of his overarching plan to retrieve Han. The director decided to cut it to keep Luke's plan a surprise.