For a movie franchise that was built atop a premise as vast as a galaxy itself, it is logical to think that the involvement of the human element in production would lead to some mishaps while the movie was being made. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back is one of the best Star Wars movies out there, second only to Return of the Jedi and Rogue One in terms of fan following. Even though it is still a cult classic movie that is watched millions of time all over the world even today, a certain mistake in the movie went unnoticed for around 40 years and we still could not figure it out being huge star wars fans ourselves.
Pablo Hidalgo is an encyclopedia of Star Wars lore. He is the foremost authority when it comes to the literature surrounding the franchise. He knows every nook and cranny of the Star Wars Universe and has watched every movie more than a dozen times. Yet, he claims that he finds out something new every time he watches a Star Wars movie. He recently pointed out a goof up in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back while he was watching a rerun of the movie. This is a mistake, Hidalgo claims, that went unnoticed since the year of 1980, the year the movie was released into the theatres.
On his official Twitter account, Hidalgo broke the news to the world:
Luke Skywalker is one of the most legendary characters in Star Wars lore. And as it is revealed, the light-saber he uses in combat as a Jedi to fight the Sith Order was not crafted by his father in the Crystal Caves of Ilum. It was also not crafted in the Den of Antiquities of Dok-Ondar. The light-saber, as it turns out, was the work of a certain workshop situated in the United States of America. To be precise, it was made in New York.
Maybe the Light Saber goof up is not a huge deal. We all know how movie productions work. Several props are built by swaths of teams that are sometimes spread over the globe. In the case of Star Wars, almost everything was sourced in-house and the fact that the Light-Saber shows a made in New York label should not come as much a surprise. What does surprise us is that the movie is still such a good experience and has captivated audiences both from the older and the younger generation, even though it is riddled with lots of mistakes? That is the power of Star Wars.
Pablo Hidalgo does not stop there. He explains that the light-saber in question was first developed out of an old camera flash holder produced by New York’s Graflex Corporation! Back then, digital prints were not even there and it was all done in VHS Tapes. The VHS tapes are of very poor quality and were known to be blurry at times. Even now, the hilt of the laser blade could only show the New York label if it is projected onto a wide angle projector screen.
Luke Skywalker’s Light Saber is going to make another appearance in the next movie in the Force Awakens trilogy – Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Last we saw it, it was destroyed and dismembered when Rey used it to fight Kylo Ren in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. The weapon is back in the hands of Rey. The only question is – is the goof up still there?
The latest installment of the Force Awakens trilogy is called Star Wars: The Last Jedi. The official film synopsis for the movie reads:
Luke Skywalker’s peaceful and solitary existence gets upended when he encounters Rey, a young woman who shows strong signs of the Force. Her desire to learn the ways of the Jedi forces Luke to make a decision that changes their lives forever. Meanwhile, Kylo Ren and General Hux lead the First Order in an all-out assault against Leia and the Resistance for supremacy of the galaxy.
