A writer for “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” explained in an exclusive interview with Entertainment Weekly why Rey could Force-grab Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber.
In “The Force Awakens,” Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) have a standoff moment where Kylo Ren wants to take the blue lightsaber, which previously belonged to Luke Skywalker and Anakin Skywalker. But it’s Rey who ends up using the Force to secure the weapon.
Lawrence Kasdan, a co-writer on the film, told Entertainment Weekly that Rey had a deeper connection to the lightsaber.
- “Rey is full of The Force — you know that pretty early on,” Kasdan told Entertainment Weekly. “We’ve seen other demonstrations that she did earlier in the movie that she has in her. You know she’s not unimportant. The saber flies into her hand because it belongs in her hand. While the secret to Kylo is that he’s massively insecure. He wants to be Darth II, but he isn’t because he’s very conflicted about everything he wants. He wants to be that pure force of evil and power, but he’s not purely any of that. I don’t know what happens in (“Rise of Skywalker”), but I’m sure that will continue to play out. He says right before, ‘That lightsaber, it belongs to me.’ So when it flies by him into her hand, everything he worries about is confirmed.”
The blue lightsaber has a storied history in the “Star Wars” franchise. Anakin Skywalker originally used the weapon, which was a replacement for his original lightsaber, according to the official entry on StarWars.com.
After Anakin loses a lightsaber battle, Obi-Wan took Anakin’s lightsaber home with him. He later gave it to Luke Skywalker when he was old enough.
Luke lost it, though, when Darth Vader chopped off Luke’s hand while they battled in Cloud City.
Somehow, the lightsaber ended up in the hands of Maz Kanata and her collection of items. The lightsaber called to Rey, who used it to defeat Kylo Ren in battle. She offered it to Luke Skywalker when she finally met him but he threw it behind him.
Later, the lightsaber was shattered in half when Rey and Kylo Ren both used the Force to obtain possession of the device. Rey took the shattered lightsaber with her after that.