In an interview with Collider, Esposito offered up some more details about his expanded role in the upcoming season of the Disney+ Star Wars series. In particular, he spoke about his recent experiences on the set, as he explained that he was responsible for performing all of his own stunt scenes, including those that featured the ancient Darksaber.
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“I don’t want you to have any spoilers, but I did all my stuntwork on my own, without a lot of rehearsal, even though it’s a fairly big budget, technological piece with the volume and all the things that are going on,” Esposito shared with the outlet. “Sometimes that leaves less time to pay more attention to, and the stuntwork, by the way, has been with an Emmy nomination as well, to do that.”
The Mandalorian’s season finale was filled with several big surprises, leading right the way up to the closing shots that showed Esposito’s character carving a segment out of his crashed TIE Fighter and emerging from the wreckage with the famed black-bladed lightsaber in his possession, which illuminated the fact that Gideon is likely to become a greater physical threat in the next season.
“Having a lightsaber, I have a couple different ones, because of the technology that’s involved,” the actor said of his lightsaber training. “They sometimes put the saber in and I have to have a handle only. But in working with that handle, I have to remember that there’s four and a half, five feet more of that saber. So it’s the way you handle it, so I had to practice. And sometimes I have a full saber that lights up.”
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“I hope I’m not giving too much away in regards to the technology of it,” he added. “It was a bit complicated, and I have to laugh because I don’t hold back. And so, some of our stuntwork in this season… I remember the props guy coming to me and saying, ‘Okay, this is our last lightsaber,’ because you gotta pull your hits… but you want it to look real.”
The Darksaber is considered to be one of the most important artifacts in Mandalorian culture. The weapon was created by a warrior named Tarre Vizsla, and over time it has come to serve as a symbol of power. In fact, whoever wields the blade is viewed by Mandalorian traditionalists as the rightful ruler of Mandalore, and defeating the blade’s owner in ritualistic combat is seen as the rightful path to power.
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Esposito previously reflected on his character’s possession of the Darksaber and what it symbolizes to him. In fact, he hinted that Moff Gideon might be a Force-sensitive villain whose physical powers extend far beyond the abilities of the weapon, as he explained how the saber being in his hands “creates the possibility that he is one of the ones.”
We’ll find out more when The Mandalorian Season 2 debuts on Disney+ in October. Until then, we invite you to dig through the archives and learn more about the history of the Darksaber by reading our Star Wars wiki guide on the ancient lightsaber, find out about an unexpected connection between the series and The Rise of Skywalker, and see our breakdown of all the notable cameos in The Mandalorian so far.
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Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.
