When asked if Huthart and her team studied older “Star Wars” movies for stunt and movement models, she replied, “Absolutely, we did.” She also recalled the entire sequence that she and the other filmmakers put together, wherein a young Luke and a young Leia sparred using lightsabers, and that she was proud of what she was able to do. In her words:
“… [T]here was a fight that’s not in the movie; young Luke and young Leia did a lightsaber fight as a training scene flashback. And so, we really wanted to create the nuances between the two characters from the early movies. The way he’d stand, the way she tilted her head, the way they swished with their lightsabers and stuff like that. So, yeah, we did our hardest to create all the nuances to pay homage to the previous movies. It was actually one of our priorities when creating stunts for the film.”
But, one might notice, it’s not in the movie. It was, rather unfortunately for Huthart, edited out, likely for pacing reasons.
“The Rise of Skywalker” isn’t about Luke or Leia, after all, and instead follows a team of newer, younger characters. Indeed, Luke died in 2017’s “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” and actress Carrie Fisher passed in 2016, requiring the filmmakers to rework her already-filmed scenes. It was logical that Luke/Leia scenes be cut.
It was regrettable, however, as most of Huthart’s work can no longer be seen. She continued:
“The young Luke and Leia, I would have loved that to have gone through, because we did it as a seamless take. It was such hard work, and it was so physical for the stunt team who took part in that.”
Only a few seconds of the two-minute sequence remain.
