The infamous High Ground scene in Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith was Steven Spielberg’s idea

Stunt coordinator Nick Gillard says the infamous “high ground” scene in Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith was Steven Spielberg’s idea.

“I think Spielberg…I think that [was] Spielberg’s idea, that scene. I might be saying too much now but I’m pretty sure it is,” Gillard told the Chris and Company podcast. “It’s just the way George [Lucas] hung onto it. We hated it, it’s common knowledge we hated it. We had a different version for it. We campaigned as hard as we could to get it changed but George was having none of it.”

In the movie’s climatic duel on the planet Mustafar, Obi-Wan tells Anakin that he “has the high ground” not long before severing his left arm and both legs…leaving him to be burned alive by a nearby lava flow.

The prequels are often controversial (not to me, though, I own a framed cross-stitch that says “I don’t like sand”), but Revenge of the Sith is widely considered to be the best of the trilogy. The film hit theaters in 2005 and grossed $868.4 million against a budget of $113 million.

Gillard did the lightsaber duel choreography for Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace and Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones in addition to Revenge of the Sith. He also makes a cameo in the latter as Cin Drallig (which is “Nic Gillard” spelled backwards).

Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith is streaming now on Disney Plus. For more from a galaxy far, far away, check out our guide to all the upcoming Star Wars movies and shows you need to know about.