Nick Gillard, stunt coordinator for Star Wars Episodes I-III, joined us on the Star Wars Time Show this week to discuss his work on the prequels, and one of the topics that arose was around the unique fighting style seen in those films. People often criticize the lightsaber combat in the prequels as overly flashy or completely unrealistic, but Gillard, who is a swordmaster, explained why they created that style of fighting for the films and just how practical it is.
In the clip below, Gillard explains the concepts used in the movie directly relate to Kendo in some instances and also goes into an explanation about the Kenobi vs Anakin fight at the end of ROTS. Check it out!
When explained by an actual swordmaster, the style and movements make way more sense.
Gillard also spoke a bit on the lightsaber work that was done in the Sequel trilogy and how it differs from the concepts they used in the prequels.
In the clip below, he talks about his thoughts on creating a fight for Kylo.
