The Road to Episode Infinity: Luke's Yellow Lightsaber

In 1977, months after Star Wars hit cinemas, Kenner released the first ever Luke Skywalker action figure with a yellow lightsaber. In September of 2020, with the release of Star Wars #6, Marvel comics finally gave Luke a canonical Yellow lightsaber to match his original action figure. But why was Luke ever depicted with a yellow saber in the first place?

Kenner’s Strange Toys

In 1977, Kenner had to rush its Star Wars line into production. Toys based on movies were a novel idea, never really attempted before and producing action figures was normally a very slow process. Famously Kenner released empty boxes for Christmas of 1977 promising that the figures would ship as soon as they were ready.

Kenner began producing Star Wars toys based on black-and-white set photos and as a result sometimes got some things wrong (ie blue snaggletooth). It is not known why the lightsaber colors were so wrong, but my theory is that the Vader, Luke, and Kenobi toys were originally assigned different colored blades: Red, Blue, and Yellow. There is some evidence that Obi-Wan Kenobi was supposed to end up with the Yellow blade, but somehow it was assigned to Luke instead.

Marvel’s Red Sabers

But lightsaber color confusion extended beyond the toys. The Star Wars comic line also depicted odd lightsaber colors. Early issues of the Marvel comics showed all lightsabers as having a red color and for years and years Luke was depicted with a red lightsaber in the upper right corner of the covers.

So why the confusion? My guess is that Lightsaber colors actually went through several changes during the development of the film. Very early concept art from Ralph McQuarrie actually shows Stormtroopers wielding white light sabers, but perhaps somewhere along the line it was decided that all sabers would be red (while the comics went into production). However late in the game Lucas probably chose to give all good guys blue lightsabers and all bad guys red ones. And that was the final word on lightsabers. Well, not exactly.

The Expanding Rainbow

While “Return of the Jedi” was in production it was decided Luke would build a new lightsaber and because he was a good guy, his blade would be blue. However, because the Tunisia sky was also blue it was decided late in production to change his blade to green. Okay… so now good guys have blue and green lightsabers. Now we know. But there is no need to add anymore colors, right?

The Expanded Universe of the 1990s actually added many different lightsaber colors into the mix. “Phatom Menace” action figures even gave Adi Gallia a maroon saber and Ki-Adi Mundi a purple saber. And yet George Lucas was not a fan of the "any-color lightsaber" theory. When “Attack of the Clones” released it was clear at the Battle of Genosis that Lucas wanted Jedi to have either blue or green lightsabers and nothing else. But then there is Sam Jackson. Sam personally asked Lucas if his lightsaber could be purple to distinguish himself from the other Jedi and Lucas (probably half-heartedly) agreed. But that’s it! Lightsabers are either red, blue, or green unless you are Mace Windu!

We would not get another cinematic lightsaber color until the very end of “The Rise of Skywalker” when Rey is depicted with a yellow lightsaber. Yet by this point you also have white and black sabers in the cartoon series and Lucas is no longer there to reign in the saber colors, so from this point forward Star Wars probably has the full-rainbow to choose from.

The full rainbow is exactly what you get on promotional images for the new “High Republic” media line. There are lightsabers of every shade and type. You’ve got single-bladed, double bladed, crossguards, and even one lightsaber with a cup-style hilt. It is actually from the relics of the High Republic that Luke Skywalker inherits his new yellow lightsaber in the recent comics (this saber is his second after his father’s blue saber but before his own self-built green saber).

Yellow Saber Wielders

In the past year yellow lightsabers have had a bit of a comeback with Rey wielding a yellow saber in the closing scenes of “The Rise of Skywalker” and Luke wielding one in the new Marvel comics. However, yellow lightsaber wielders are all over the old Expanded Universe and even the new Disney Universe. The guards of the Jedi Temple are given yellow lightsabers in Season 5 of “The Clone Wars” and Asaj Ventress is given a yellow saber in the novel “Dark Disciple”. In an upcoming “High Republic” novel to be published in January, a Twi’lek Jedi Master named Loden Greatsorm will also wield a yellow blade.

Though Star Wars fans of the late 70s probably found it annoying that the Luke action figure came with a yellow lightsaber, nostalgia eventually makes everything seem okay. A Luke with yellow saber figure was featured on variant Marvel covers in May 2017 and September 2020. 2020 will remembered for many things, but in the Star Wars universe it will be the year that Luke finally got his yellow lightsaber.

Star Wars #6 is in comic shops right now.