You’d think the Disney-era lightsabers would be the best we’ve ever had, right?
Turns out Ewan McGregor doesn’t think so. In fact, he straight-up prefers the prequel lightsabers he used 20 years ago — and his reason is way more interesting.
The Prequel Lightsabers Hit Like Real Weapons
In a recent interview, Ewan described how different the sabers were back when he and Hayden Christensen were filming the prequel trilogy.
The props were made by a craftsman on set — Ewan tried to remember his name:
“Thomas… Thomas the lightsaber maker,” he joked.
These sabers were metal, some kind of alloy, and they were built to take real impact. Ewan said they bent constantly because he and Hayden swung them with so much force that the blades sometimes couldn’t even survive a single take.
But he loved that about them.
They felt real. They clashed with weight. When he and Hayden fought, the sabers didn’t wobble or flex — they smacked together with a satisfying, solid whack that made every duel feel grounded.
Those props gave the fights in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith their iconic physicality — something you can still see in the ferocity of the Mustafar duel.
The Disney Sabers Look Amazing… But Don’t Fight as Well
Then Ewan moved on to the modern Disney-era lightsabers — the ones used in Obi-Wan Kenobi. Unlike the prequel props, these blades actually light up on set, which means the actors get real glow and color reflections during scenes. That’s how they achieved those dramatic blue-and-red face highlights in the final duel.
Ewan even described one moment during rehearsals where he and Hayden were standing with their sabers raised:
“We had our swords here and his face was blue… then we moved over here and our faces turned red — and it was just magic.”
That kind of lighting simply wasn’t possible during the prequels, since all the illumination had to be added digitally afterward.
But Ewan also admitted that, as cool as the new sabers look on camera, they’re not great for actual fighting. The modern blades bend, flex, and wobble during strikes, and they don’t deliver that solid, satisfying impact he remembers from the old metal props.