Star Wars: 10 Things You Never Knew About Mace Windu
9. Mace Has Samuel L Jackson To Thank For His Unique Lightsaber
One of Mace Windu’s most recognizable features is his purple lightsaber. There is literally no other lightsaber like it in Star Wars canon. In-universe, the lightsaber’s unique color is thanks to an amethyst Kyber crystal at its core.
In reality, the purple lightsaber was a request of Samuel Jackson when he agreed to play Mace Windu. His reasoning? He wanted to easily spot himself on screen. While appearing on The Graham Norton Show, Jackson explained, “We had this big arena, this fight scene with all these Jedi and they’re fightin’ or whatever. And I was like, well s---, I wanna be able to find myself in this big ol’ scene. So I said to George, "You think maybe I can get a purple lightsaber?"
A few days later, Lucas pulled Jackson aside and revealed Mace Windu’s purple lightsaber, “...I was like yeah! ...I could find myself in that big fight scene. There's like 300 lightsabers, and I'm like, ‘There I am, right there.’”
Let’s just take a moment to respect Samuel Jackson’s talent as an actor. The fact that one of the most interesting and funny personalities in Hollywood can play a character as boringly written (sorry George) as Windu is an incredible feat.
And thanks to Jackson, the character has a clearly defined personality, including his trademark purple lightsaber.