Lucasfilm Exec Points Out Overlooked Prop Goof in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

Finding little errors and prop mishaps in movies has always been a fun exercise for fans, especially when it comes to properties we love. Seeing a man in modern clothes in an Indiana Jones film was absolutely priceless the first time we noticed it. However, thanks to a stray coffee cup on the set of Game of Thrones, these little mistakes have been more heavily talked-about than ever before. People are on the hunt for these errors, trying to earn a trending tweet. But that doesn’t mean the fun is lost. In fact, one Star Wars producer has noticed a mistake in one of his studio’s movies for the first time, and he’s got no problem pointing it out.

On Tuesday night, Lucasfilm producer Pablo Hidalgo sat down to watch Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back for probably the 100th time. However, on this particular viewing, he noticed an error with a prop that he’d completely missed every other time he’d seen it. If you pay really close attention, you can see the words “New York” stamped on Luke’s lightsaber.

“I’ve noted this before, but every time I watch a Star Wars movie, there’s something new to notice,” Hidalgo wrote. “Especially if I’m fortunate to catch it on the big screen. This latest discovery? That ‘New York’ is visible on the bottom of Luke’s lightsaber in Empire.”

When you look at the two pictures that Hidalgo posted, it seems as though the words were left over from the steel that made up the lightsaber. The second photo shows the fresh steel hilt, without the added pieces on the side, and the full stamp on the bottom. While most of it was buffed out and covered up in the final product, a couple of the words weren’t completely removed.

This is a very small error, and hard to even notice if you aren’t looking forward. It’s honestly surprising that Hidalgo even found it in the first place. Then again, with as closely as Star Wars fans have watched these movies over the years, it’s hard to believe it took this long for someone to see it.

What’s your favorite movie prop error? Let us know in the comments!