The latest Homing Beacon has arrived, and today we get to talk about
Ki-Adi-Mundi! Like Mace Windu, Jedi Knight Ki-Adi-Mundi appeared in
Episode I primarily as a chair-dweller in the Jedi Council. While
Mace broke out in Episode II to show why he's the second-best
(outdone only by Yoda) swordsman in the Jedi Order, Ki-Adi-Mundi's
heroics remained generally unseen at Geonosis.
As many Star Wars fans know, physical action for the
Cerean was scripted and filmed in a sequence where Ki-Adi-Mundi led
a group of Jedi on a parallel mission inside a Federation Droid
Control Ship. That storyline was abandoned so early, there wasn't
even enough material to craft it to finished form for the Episode II
DVD... and so the mystique grew.
For starwars.com Hyperspace members, that long-anticipated lost
footage made its debut this week. (If you haven't already,
Hyperspace members click
here to see it. Or become
a member to see what the excitement is about.)
For Silas Carson, the actor who played Ki-Adi-Mundi, the release
of the sequence is welcome validation amidst doubting associates.
"So many people have asked if I got to do any fighting, and I'd
tell them, ‘Yeah, I did quite a few days of filming and breaking a
sweat.' But when we went to see the movie, I saw that they cut that
part out. The arena rescue was a packed sequence anyways."
In the video, fans may want to make note of Ki-Adi-Mundi's unique
fighting style. "Because my background is mostly theater,"
explains Carson, "I've done some sword fighting. Everybody
always used their lightsaber double-handed, and I told [Stunt
Coordinator] Nick Gillard that I'd really prefer to use mine
single-handed. I'm the only Jedi who fights that way."
Still, Carson takes the edit in stride. "You have to ask
yourself, ‘Does it tell the story?' Films can get very, very long
if you put everything in there. I would imagine there's a huge
amount of footage that George hasn't used."
Like the fans themselves, Carson was counting the days when
starwars.com spoke with him last week. "I can't wait to see
it!"