Summary
- Dafne Keen reveals “we want to top the Darth Maul fight” from
Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace. - Keen’s favorite part of filming the upcoming Disney+ series,
The Acolyte,
was training with and using her lightsaber on set. - Keen recalls her childhood love of
Star Wars,
pretending sticks were her elegant, Jedi weapons: “I have a saber!”
Pulling off a better lightsaber duel than the one between Darth Maul, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn in Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace is quite the lofty goal. And that’s exactly what Dafne Keen and the creatives behind The Acolyte Disney+ series set out to do, as the actress portraying Jedi Padawan Jecki Lon recently revealed. Keen said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly:
“We want to top the Darth Maul fight — the most iconic fight,
I think, in the Star Wars cinematic universe.
It’s such an amazing fight,
and we were all so excited about the saber fights. There’s such a skill and a craft to it that it
feels so OG Star Wars and feels so impressive when you see it as a viewer.”
The Acolyte
Star Wars series that take viewers into a galaxy of shadowy secrets and emerging dark-side powers in the final days of the High Republic era.
- Release Date
- 2024-00-00
- Seasons
- 1
- Studio
- Disney+, Lucasfilm
- Franchise
- Star Wars
- Streaming Service(s)
- Disney+
The famed Darth Maul lightsaber duel is a work of choreographed art thanks to stunt coordinator Nick Gillard, the acting abilities of Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor, and to say nothing of the performance and athletic prowess of Maul actor Ray Park. Topping that fight will take quite the effort, but it seems Keen and company are up to the challenge. The actress also revealed that having and using a lightsaber on the set of The Acolyte was her “favorite part of filming.” Keen said in the same interview:
“It was my favorite part of filming.
I loved the whole training process of it. Everyone was very excited about it, which then made it much more fun. Our incredible stunt team created this kind of fusion of different martial arts, and
we were really trained in how to use the sabers.
I feel very comfortable with a sword now.”
Dafne Keen Upgrades from Sticks to Lightsabers
Darth Maul might not have enjoyed much screen time in that live-action galaxy far, far away, but the incredible lightsaber duel and his imposing presence in Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace led to Maul joining and becoming a beloved fixture in The Clone Wars. And for Dafne Keen, the actress has fond memories of pretending sticks were lightsabers when she was a kid. Keen said in the same interview:
“I remember watching
Star Wars when I was a kid,
then
playing with sticks on the street and being like, ‘I have a saber!’
And now finally getting to learn these incredible choreographies that the stunt team put together was just honestly such a privilege, because
we had such an amazing stunt team.”
The Acolyte Showrunner Dishes on the Gap Between Disney+ Series and the Star Wars Prequels
The Acolyte’s Leslye Headland is interested in exploring the Jedi’s timeline leading up to Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.
Keen also expressed her admiration for showrunner Leslye Headland’s “broad understanding of Star Wars.” The actress said during a separate interview with EW:
“Leslye is one of the most amazing people I’ve ever worked with.
She’s such an interesting director in the sense that she has an innate trust with actors and her crew that it makes you trust her more. She’s so confident in the people she’s hiring, and
she has such a broad understanding of Star Wars and of cinema in general
that
I truly feel like I would follow that woman to the trenches.”
The two-episode premiere of
The Acolyte
drops Tuesday, June 4 on
Disney+.
