With the recently released Star Wars titles, Disney has shown their interest in focusing on non-traditional lightsaber colors. In the span of two months, Disney released multiple titles spanning across film, TV, and video game platforms. Here are the unique lightsabers that served as major plot points and why Disney seems obsessed with using different colors.
Lightsabers were first introduced in George Lucas’ film that started it all in the galaxy far, far away: 1977’s Star Wars. The signature weapon was predominantly used by the Jedi and the Sith. The wielders often developed their own hilt or design which varied from the single blade, double blade, and others. Over time, the franchise provided more insight into the crafting of the plasma weapon and how it was powered by kyber crystals. The color of the crystal would indicate which color the blade would glow, giving it another customizable quality.
Throughout Star Wars and the sequel, The Empire Strikes Back, the only colors used for lightsabers were blue for Jedi and red for Sith. For Return of the Jedi, Luke’s new lightsaber was initially blue but it was later changed to green before the film was released. Those three colors remained the primary colors for the prequel trilogy until Mace Windu was introduced as using a unique purple-bladed lightsaber. An array of colors were featured in Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels as was the case in Star Wars’ EU but those different colors weren’t commonly used in the eyes of mainstream fans until Disney took over.
At the end of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Rey took the lightsabers once owned by Luke and Leia and buried them at the Lars homestead in Tatooine. While doing so, it was revealed that the heroine created her own lightsaber. The hilt was crafted from her staff and the blade was yellow, making Rey the first live-action character to use that color. Yellow-bladed lightsabers were once used by guardians of the Jedi Temple in The Clone Wars but never as the primary color used by major characters.
In addition to the big feature film, Disney released two other Star Wars titles in late 2019. The Mandalorian made its debut on Disney+ and introduced the world to Baby Yoda. By the end of the first season, the series brought the infamous black-bladed Darksaber into live-action. The weapon has a long history in the Star Wars universe but it was an interesting move by Disney to introduce it to a new segment of fans. Disney also re-canonized the orange-bladed lightsaber with the recently released video game, Jedi: Fallen Order. Orange lightsabers were commonly used in the Knights of the Old Republic games but were later wiped from canon. That was until Fallen Order featured the return of the orange lightsaber crystal. Ahsoka Tano’s white lightsabers is also another newer twist in lightsaber lore.
One reason why Disney might have prioritized the use of non-traditional colored lightsabers in recent titles could be to freshen up the signature weapon. Colors like blue, green, and red are synonymous with the Skywalker Saga so it makes sense why the franchise wants to move past that and reiterate that the galaxy is full of possibilities. Those who haven’t watched the animated series may not be aware of the other crystals so Disney’s big live-action titles were used to show the customizable factors involved with constructing the weapon. It also doesn’t hurt introducing new weapons when Disney banks on merchandise. Toy or model lightsabers have been around for decades and this gives Disney at least three new Star Wars lightsaber designs to put in front of consumers.
