There’s no denying that the lightsaber fight between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader on the Death Star inStar Wars: A New Hopeis one of the most iconic scenes from the entire franchise. Maybe all of cinema history. That said, given how far fight choreography and special effects have come in the 40 years since 1977, the fight does look a little bit slow, by modern standards. A new fan video is looking to remedy that, asScene 38 Reimaginedprovides a most impressive update to the famous fight, giving us a look at what theRogue Oneversion of Darth Vader would look like going up against the old Ben fromA New Hope.
The video was uploaded to the FXitinPost YouTube channel recently by someone who’s working on the project as a VFX supervisor. If you watch the video, it looks as though they’re doing a pretty good job. Though just a teaser for the full, reimagined scene, which is promised to be coming in 2018, it already has more than 1 million views. And for good reason. The 46-seconds of footage is intense, blends old footage with new footage and doesn’t try to do too much. It really is faithful, but does a great job of updating the fight for modern audiences.
“Here’s a small teaser trailer for a project I’m VFX supervising, ‘Scene 38 ReImagined’ is about the final confrontation betweenBen Kenobi&Darth Vaderin ‘A New Hope’ nearly 20 years after the events of ‘Revenge Of The Sith.’ More to come soon!”
George Lucas may not have managed to do a lot right in the prequels in the eyes of many fans, but he certainly made use of the technology and advancements in film available to him. Specifically,lightsaber fightsmoved ahead light years in theStar Warsprequels. Since, chronologically speaking, those lightsaber fights take place before the events ofStar Wars: A New Hope, if you were to watch the movies in order, the Obi-Wan and Darth Vader fight would seem pretty slow and maybe even a little anticlimactic.
As this video shows, it’s not as though the Obi-Wan and Vader duel needs to be a ridiculous series of overly intense laser sword dancing, but adding a bit of energy and intensity to the scene wouldn’t hurt. It also seems even more strange now, given that Darth Vader scene inRogue One: A Star Wars Story, which takes place just minutes beforeStar Wars: A New Hope. We know Darth Vader is very capable with a lightsaber at that point in his life.
There’s no word yet on when the full video is going to drop, but it looks like these guys are paying great attention to detail and really taking their time with it. So it may not be for a while, but this may well be worth the wait for hardcoreStar Warsfans. Be sure to check out the updated Obi-Wan and Darth Vader lightsaber duel, courtesy of theFXitinPost YouTubechannel, for yourself below.
