Imagine watching Star Wars and seeing stormtroopers rushing into battle, lightsabers blazing instead of their classic blasters. Sounds strange, right? But believe it or not, this was almost exactly what happened. In the early stages of developing the Star Wars universe, George Lucas seriously considered arming Imperial troops with lightsabers—something that today feels unimaginable given how iconic and exclusive these weapons became for the Jedi and Sith.
Here’s the fascinating story behind why stormtroopers nearly wielded lightsabers and how this idea shaped what we now see as one of the galaxy’s most iconic weapons.
When George Lucas first envisioned the Star Wars universe, lightsabers weren’t originally exclusive to the Jedi and Sith. In fact, early concept art by legendary illustrator Ralph McQuarrie depicted stormtroopers equipped with lightsabers, along with handheld shields, making these iconic weapons standard issue for Imperial troops. The original intention was to portray lightsabers as common military gear, accessible to both sides in the Galactic conflict, rather than rare artifacts used by Force-sensitive warriors.
However, Lucas eventually reconsidered this idea to emphasize the mystical and symbolic nature of the Jedi. By reserving lightsabers exclusively for the Jedi Knights and their Sith counterparts, Lucas successfully amplified their uniqueness and importance, making them instantly recognizable symbols of power and skill throughout the galaxy.
You can even find some of McQuarrie’s original concept art showing stormtroopers wielding lightsabers, which serves as a fascinating reminder of how different Star Wars could have looked.
So, from the first concept art of Stormtroopers that I found from the book “Star Wars Costumes: The Original Trilogy (2014),” we can clearly see the concept of everyone wielding lightsabers—from Darth Vader and the Jedi, right down to the Imperial Stormtroopers. I’ll leave the images right down below so you can see it for yourself.
As we can see from the image, a stormtrooper is clearly depicted wielding a lightsaber and holding a shield while facing Han Solo and Chewbacca. Interestingly enough, even Han Solo himself is armed with a lightsaber in this early artwork.
Even though we never officially saw stormtroopers wielding lightsabers in the movies, I discovered that there’s actually a fascinating exception in official Star Wars canon. In Marvel’s 2015 Star Wars comic series by Jason Aaron and Stuart Immonen, we meet Sergeant Kreel—an elite stormtrooper from Vader’s own 501st Legion. Kreel repeatedly faces off against Luke Skywalker with a lightsaber, which immediately grabbed my attention. Granted, Kreel didn’t exactly receive Jedi training; he simply got his hands on the lightsaber after stealing it from a Hutt’s private collection of Jedi artifacts.
