Star Wars Director Reveals How He Changed Lightsaber Canon Using Classic Samurai Cinema

The lightsabers in The Ninth Jedi have puzzled Star Wars fans ever since the original Star Wars: Visions short debuted in 2021. Rather than adhering to the familiar blue, green, and red saber colors, these blades shift hues depending on their wielder connection to the Force. This idea has become a pivotal part of the lore while giving Star Wars a chance to expand its canon in surprising new ways.

This becomes particularly apparent with the introduction of a silver lightsaber, which represents a state of balance within the Force. Ahead of Star Wars Visions Presents — The Ninth Jedi, Polygon spoke with supervising director Kenji Kamiyama, director Shunsuke Tada, and producer Hitoshi Ito through a translator at Anime Expo to discuss the continuation.

Kamiyama revealed the origins of the lightsabers were rooted in an attempt to translate a distinctly Japanese way of thinking in the Star Wars universe, rather than expand existing lore.

When we first designed it, we made the blade transparent because it represented a pure existence that wasn’t bound to anything. Eventually it became silver.

The decision to change the color took careful consideration.

We discussed many different ideas. Should it become black? Should it become another color?

Silver ultimately won out because it represented something neither entirely light nor dark. For Kamiyama, the concept drew inspiration from Eastern philosophy and samurai storytelling, where mastery is often represented by reaching a state of pure balance.

In Eastern thinking, when a master reaches a higher plane, there’s a sense of nothingness. It felt natural that the color would become silver or clear.

That concept proved difficult to communicate across cultures. Kamiyama pointed to classic samurai cinema as an example of drastic differences in storytelling conventions.

In samurai films, a master senses the enemy presence without any external cue. When those films were adapted into Westerns, filmmakers often felt they needed to add a sound: a twig snaps or some kind of cue so the audience understands the enemy is there.

In the original Japanese stories, that moment often happens in complete silence.

The master senses the opponent without any sign.

I felt the Jedi Order itself had become restrictive.

Trying to express that awareness through a weapon became a major creative challenge.

It wasn’t enough just to make it transparent. Representing silver itself was surprisingly difficult.

The Ninth Jedi shares similarities with other anime that use silver to represent mastery and a balanced mindset. In Akira Toriyama’s Dragon Ball Super, the Saiyan Goku learns a transformation called Ultra Instinct. The form changes his hair to silver and gives him autonomous movement, granting mastery over his body to the point where he does not have to think to move.

Similar themes of balance and heightened awareness extend to the characters. Kamiyama returned to the idea that The Ninth Jedi avoids dividing characters into simple categories of light and dark.

If a Jedi doesn’t contain their own darkness, I don’t think you can portray them as truly strong.

That belief shaped series protagonist Kara, who represents a new generation of Jedi rather than a flawless guardian.

I wanted her to embody what a new generation of Jedi should be.

Kara is reminiscent of Qui-Gon Jinn played by Liam Neeson in Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Fans associate Qui-Gon with the concept of a gray Jedi due to his refusal to sit on the High Council and his radical independence from the Jedi Order. Qui-Gon prioritizes the Living Force, which emphasizes immediate empathy and instinct, over the institution’s detached fixation on prophecy.

When this similarity was mentioned, Kamiyama smiled.

If fans feel that connection, that makes me happy.

Kamiyama hopes audiences understand that the lightsabers were not created simply to add another color to mythology. The silver blade evokes a state of mastery where true strength comes from understanding the dark side without allowing it to take control.

Star Wars Visions Presents — The Ninth Jedi is streaming on Disney Plus and Hulu.

 

Source: Polygon