An Interview with
DANIEL WALLACE
by HAYATO UESUGI
――Online today is the one and only Daniel Wallace. Hello, Dan.
You’ve published a lot of books on Star Wars including Star Wars: Battles, which I translated in 2015, but it was the first time for you to write a book on just lightsabers. First of all, what prompted you to write it?
Hi. First of all, thank you so much for having me. I appreciate this opportunity to talk to people. You’re right, I have done a lot of Star Wars books over the years. I particularly love Star Wars; I think it’s very mythic in its influences and light sabers just seem like a very natural thing. When George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars, was making the films he was very inspired by samurai films—in particular the Kurosawa films and the lightsaber is essentially intended to be a samurai’s katana. And the idea that you would have a unique blade that is yours as a peacekeeper and as a member of a particular order is very central to the idea of Star Wars and a very interesting subject to explore in something like this where we can really see the hilts themselves. Because the blades are made of energy, so they can’t be inscribed, for example. But the hilts are very unique and even the blades are unique because they all come in different colors. It was a very fascinating subject to dive into, to understand a little bit better. Even as somebody who really loves the Star Wars movies, I learned a lot in the writing of this book.
――Please let us know what was most enjoyable and most challenging for you in writing Star Wars: The Lightsaber Collection.
The most enjoyable part of this book was going behind the scenes aspect of it. This is not just a book that is about how the light sabers are used in the Star Wars universe. It also talks about how they were made by the prop masters who made them, by the concept artists who helped design them, by the actors who actually had to carry them and use them in combat situations while they were filming. That was really interesting, so this is both an in-universe and behind the scenes bit about how the sabers were created, what parts do they use. The very early light sabers were made from parts that were taken from a camera store in London. The actual hilt of the original light saber is actually a camera flash, so they are found objects and I think that makes them even more special.
The most challenging part was probably trying to cut down the list. We only have so many pages in a book and we only have so much space to give to each one and I think we had way too many. We actually had to cut them down. We wanted to showcase ones the films but we also wanted to showcase ones from the spin-offs, the video games, things of that nature, so there was a lot of back-and-forth. There are some characters from the Jedi Council who don’t have a saber in here but it was like pulling teeth to decide how we would end up on that. It was a tough one.
――While translating the Lightsaber collection, I was always impressed with your writing skill. You succeeded to draw in many fans of Star Wars but also people who are in charge of movies and arts. Could you explain how you think you have developed this style of writing?
Well, thank you very much for the compliment about the style of writing. Arigato gozaimasu. I have been writing for Star Wars for a long time. I am a longtime fan and grew up with the Star Wars series. I think I really understand the universe it takes place in. I’ve also written for a lot of other things—DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Warcraft. I translated the Final Fantasy series of books. Those are all really fun and I really enjoyed them. I feel the style of writing comes out as a result of that.
I think I’m more of a fact-based person. I really want to understand how something is made. A lot of people are like that in sci-fi fans. They want to know – What is this object? Who made it? How do they make it? How can I make one? Maybe it’s a cosplay or something like that. And so I really do try to explain as much as I can the process that goes into making something. And it’s very fun. I consider myself very lucky to have had the opportunity to really dive into these things and to interview people who are the experts. Who are the actors, the writers, the illustrators, the concept artists, the directors because they’re the ones who make it happen. And I’m happy to have a seat at the table.
――You wrote about Star Wars characters and their Lightsabers in detail from Star Wars Original movies, Episode I to IX, also from spinoffs like Rogue One, Han Solo, the Clone Wars, Rebels, Mandalorian, and even from the video game Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Disneyland and Walt Disney World Resort’s attraction “Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.” Japanese readers are impressed with your knowledge about Star Wars.
Please tell us what Star Wars is for you, and why you think Star Wars keeps on attracting many people all over the world.
As to why Star Wars continues to attract fans, I think you might have hit on it a little bit with your question which was in Star Wars, the Lightsaber Collection we concentrate on not just the movies--Star Wars the New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith—we also concentrate on the animated projects. We concentrate on television projects—The Mandalorian, The Dark Saber is in here. But The Dark Saber also originated in animation. So The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels, the theme parks. Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge at the Disney parks, you can make your own.
If you go to one of these parks (and hopefully more people will be going to these parks soon) and you decide to make your own saber, there is a history of construction lore that Lucasfilm developed and it’s in this book. It’s official. And video games? Like you said, Fallen Order—an excellent game but it’s a franchise. It’s not just a series of movies, it’s something that attracts people who might have different entry points. Maybe they watched the animated series. Maybe they played the games. Or maybe they went to a theme park, but it has multiple ways of bringing people in and experiencing the same story. And we reflected that in this book, too.
――Please tell us about the illustrators Lukasz Liszko and Ryan Valle and their work for this book.
The illustrations are really something in this book. I’m very happy with the work that the illustrators put in.
The goal on this was to get photo realistic lightsaber hilts that looked almost as if they were just props. We could certainly do that with some of them because they were actually built as props, the ones for the movies. Luke’s lightsaber for A New Hope is a prop. I’m sure we could get a photo of it from Lucasfilm. But the ones that were used in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels, Jedi Fallen Order, the comic books, we have some of them from there. They don’t actually exist as physical objects. They do exist as renders, so the challenge for the artists was to make those feel as tangible—like you could really pick it up out of the book and hold it and push the thing and it would light up. And they all had to feel like that. Not just the ones from the movies, but the ones from the non-movies. And they really succeeded beyond my wildest expectations.
I’m super happy and I think fans will be super happy with the illustrations in this book and the detail and the realism that is given to the lightsaber hilts themselves.
――Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, we can’t get together and talk about Star Wars including new story series High Republic and the upcoming Disney Plus drama Star Wars: The Bad Batch. Many Star Wars fans are so frustrated with the ongoing situation because they cannot get together and do the things they would like to do. Could you give us your comment on that?
It’s unfortunate that COVID put everybody on the back foot for almost a year. I’m optimistic that in 2021 we’ll start turning the corner globally in all different countries and we’ll be able to open things up again. Earlier we were talking about the lightsabers that you can build for yourself in the U.S. right now, but I think they will probably extend this to Japan. I’m not sure what the timeframe is. But in Florida and in California they have dedicated Star Wars attractions. You can go and build your own according to official lore. It’s a great experience and I haven’t done it yet. I plan on doing it, but all of that took a little bit of a hiatus because of the pandemic.
And so best wishes that we put all this behind us and everybody is able to gather together in fan conventions, everybody is able to go to things like Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge at the parks and we’re able to be fans again—in a connected, in-person environment. The best part of being a fan of anything is hanging out and spending time with fellow fans.
――Could you let us know about your current projects?
The Lightsaber Collection has been released recently. My most recent release is the official “behind the scenes” art book for Godzilla vs. Kong, which is another book I’m very proud of. It’s a movie that is very fun. I have been a huge fan of Godzilla for my entire life. I think I saw the original films growing up as a very small child in the United States on television and King Kong as well. To be able to work on this particular book that puts these two kaiju, I guess Kong is an American kaiju, for a conflict—well, it’s the second time they’ve met, of course. It was a real privilege and something I really enjoyed. I love Godzilla, I love the kaiju movies. I’ve worked on some Pacific Rim books which is sort of similar to that as well.
I mentioned earlier that I’ve done some translation of some Final Fantasy and some other things. I’m actually trying to study Japanese and I haven’t my mastery quite yet, but I am a big fan of many, many, many pop culture things that are coming out of Japan. I’m very excited to work on more of them and also, to develop my language proficiency in Nihongo, but I’ve got a lot of work to do. Gambare!
――Kimetsu No Yaiba or Demon Slayer became a runaway box office hit not only in Japan but also in the States. I believe the fans of Star Wars in your country have noticed some similarities between the swords in Demon Slayer and Lightsabers. Could you comment on that?
I actually—that’s a really interesting question about Demon Slayer. It’s Kimetsu no Yaiba, I think, in Japanese. I might have gotten that wrong. Demon Slayer, now that it’s been translated into the U.S., I have started watching. I have not finished the series but I have watched it far enough—this is the anime, I have not read the manga yet, where the protagonist has his blade is forged. I think this is what you’re getting at. There is an interesting bit of dialog where they’re talking about what color it’s going to be. Of course, it ends up being black, kuro. I haven’t seen the rest of the series so I’m not sure what that means yet. But the idea that the blade itself would reflect a bit of what the wielder is inside is also similar to how the lightsabers are used in Star Wars. The most obvious being that the bad guys, the Sith, use red blades. But the Jedi have several different colors as well. There is blue, there is green and some of the lore explains it more. One color is more protective, one is a little bit more proactive and the color of the blade explains a bit more about the wielder’s personality.
I am very interested to see where the series goes. There’s only one season out so far so I’m probably going to binge it within the next week or so, we’ll see. It’s a great series. I’m really enjoying it.
――Finally, please give us your message for your Japanese readers.
As I mentioned earlier, I am trying to learn Japanese. However, my mastery of Nihongo is not good.
So, in English I wish to say to Japanese readers I thank you very much. I am honored that you would pick up this book, that you would read this book. I’ve done my best to make this a book that you will read and enjoy. Thank you very much.
In Japanese, “watashi no nihongo ha heta desu. Demo, watashi wa benkyoshimasu maianichi desu. Yoroshiku onegai shimasu. Arigato gozaimasu.
――No, your Japanese is excellent! Let’s discuss Star Wars and Japanese pop culture including Kimetsu no Yaiba (Demon Slayer) in Japanese next time. Thank you very much for sharing your precious time with me today.
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