Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Concept Art Shows Rey’s Double-Bladed Lightsaber Training

After the brief Dark Rey clip from the Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker teaser that showed Daisy Ridley‘s character with a double-bladed lightsaber, fans were frothing at the mouth to see it happen actually in the film and not in just a vision. At one point in development it was seemingly going to be included in the film though as new concept art reveals. English artist David Allcock revealed the piece on his website, showing off Rey with a double bladed lightsaber made from quarterstaff while training with a ton of seeker droids. Though it didn’t make it into the film itself, you can see it for yourself here.

The seeds for Rey having a double-bladed lightsaber could be seen in the novelization of The Rise of Skywalker as well, seemingly written in tandem with the movie’s development but absent from the final cut. Early in the book comes a passage that reveals Rey’s thoughts about her lightsaber. She had begun building her lightsaber after she fixed the damage inflicted on Luke’s lightsaber during Star Wars: The Last Jedi. The passage reads:

“She eyed the unfinished lightsaber on her workbench. It wasn’t ready yet, and the one she’d painstakingly repaired — Luke’s — didn’t belong to her. So her quarterstaff would have to suffice as a weapon. Which was just fine. It had served her well on Jakku for years. In fact, someday, once she had mastered this lightsaber-building business, she might design one that felt more like a quarterstaff in her hand. Familiar and hefty. Two business ends. Maybe with a hinge in the middle for portability.”

For those thinking that perhaps one day we’ll see Daisy Ridley reprise as Rey and get to see her actually use her own lightsaber for a change, don’t hold your breath just yet. Ridley previously shot down a return to the franchise after the 2019 conclusion of the Skywalker Saga.

“It felt like an end… I can’t actually imagine it right now,” Ridley said while speaking to British GQ, Ridley. “I don’t know what’ll happen in however many years.”

This lines up with comments that Ridley previously made in 2017, when she argued that the goal was for her to do only the trilogy of films.

“No,” Ridley said at the time. “For me, I didn’t really know what I was signing on to. I hadn’t read the script, but from what I could tell, it was really nice people involved, so I was just like, ‘Awesome.’ Now I think I am even luckier than I knew then, to be part of something that feels so like coming home now.”