With The Phantom Menace often singled out as a way of highlighting how bad George Lucas' prequels were, it's all too easy to forget that Attack of the Clones is a considerably worse movie.
The sequel has some redeeming qualities but fails to live up to its title (something The Clone Wars would thankfully rectify). Attack of the Clones also often receives praise for what many felt was a standout lightsaber duel which saw Yoda leap - literally - into a battle with Count Dooku that showed a very different side to the pint-sized Jedi Master.
During a recent interview with Star Wars Theory, prequel trilogy stunt coordinator Nick Gillard confirmed that the addition of Yoda to that final battle was very much a last-minute decision on George Lucas' part. In fact, original plans called for the spotlight to remain on Hayden Christensen's Anakin Skywalker.
"That happened on the day. We get there to shoot it as it was, with a much bigger fight with Obi and Anakin, and George said he wanted Yoda in it," Gillard recalls. "On that day he said, 'However it starts, the blast doors are going to open and there’s Yoda.'"
"When Obi and Anakin fight Dooku and Yoda comes in, in that fight originally, Yoda wasn’t in it. Yoda’s place was taken up with a much bigger fight with Anakin." Asked about a promotional shot of Dooku wielding two lightsabers, Gillard confirmed the "very complicated" battle once included a "section where [he and Anakin] both had two lightsabers."
What's interesting about this is the fact that, if Lucas hadn't suddenly decided to shake things up, we wouldn't have seen Yoda wield a lightsaber until his fateful duel with Emperor Palpatine in Revenge of the Sith.
That would have gone some way in increasing excitement for the finale, though the fight was a tad underwhelming and saw Yoda made short work of by the villain known as Darth Sidious.
Do you think throwing Yoda into the mix was the right decision for Attack of the Clones?
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