Darth Vader's Lightsaber: Every Version, Appearance and Canon Fact
Darth Vader's red lightsaber is the third saber Anakin Skywalker built, made after he lost his blue one on Mustafar. This reference lists each saber Anakin and Vader carried, where the red one appears from 1977 to 2023, what happened to it, how canon and Legends differ, and how the film prop was made.
Short answer
Darth Vader's red lightsaber is the third saber Anakin Skywalker built, made after he lost his blue one on Mustafar. This reference lists each saber Anakin and Vader carried, where the red one appears from 1977 to 2023, what happened to it, how canon and Legends differ, and how the film prop was made.
On this page11 sections
Darth Vader’s lightsaber is a single red blade on a black cylindrical hilt, and in current canon it is the third saber Anakin Skywalker built [1]. He made it after Obi-Wan Kenobi took his blue one on Mustafar. It appears from A New Hope (1977) to Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022), and it ends up in the reactor shaft of the second Death Star [1]. The red colour comes from a bled kyber crystal in canon, which the red lightsaber page explains. This page covers the saber itself, its history, canon against Legends, and the film prop. The matching light side saber stories are on the Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi pages.
This is an informational reference. Star Wars and its characters belong to Lucasfilm and Disney, and this site shows no film stills or logos.
Last checked: 2026-11-09.
Quick answers
- Colour: red [1].
- Type: single blade, with an adjustable blade length that Wookieepedia calls dual-phase [1].
- Built: 19 BBY, aboard Vader’s starship, in canon [1].
- Fate: lost with his severed hand in the Death Star II reactor shaft at Endor [1].
- Legends: same fate, but a different crystal and a different back story [2].
Which sabers did Anakin and Vader carry
Vader is Anakin Skywalker after he turns to the dark side, so “Vader’s lightsaber” can mean four different weapons. The table runs in story order. “BBY” and “ABY” mean before and after the Battle of Yavin, the calendar Star Wars stories use.
| Saber | Blade | Era | What happened to it | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anakin’s first saber, built around 29 BBY | Blue | Republic | Destroyed by a cutting arm in a droid factory on Geonosis, 22 BBY | [4] |
| Anakin’s second saber (the Skywalker lightsaber) | Blue | Clone Wars | Taken by Obi-Wan on Mustafar, later given to Luke, lost on Bespin | [3] |
| Kirak Infil’a’s saber, bled by Vader | Green, then red | Imperial | Hilt shattered on Cabarria, crystal kept | [1] |
| Vader’s own saber, built 19 BBY | Red | Imperial | Fell down the Death Star II reactor shaft at Endor, 4 ABY | [1] |
The red saber on this page is the last row. The page does not repeat the blue sabers in detail, since they belong to the Jedi stories told on the Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi pages.
Design wise, Wookieepedia says the red saber looks much like Anakin’s first Jedi saber, just in darker metal [1]. Its Legends page says the same thing in other words [2].
How Vader built his red saber in canon
In canon, Sidious sent Vader to kill a Jedi and take a kyber crystal. Vader killed Jedi Master Kirak Infil’a and took his curved hilt, then went to Mustafar and bled the crystal until it turned from green to red [1]. He fought with that weapon for a while, including a brief duel with the Grand Inquisitor and Jocasta Nu in the old Jedi Temple [1].
The hilt did not last. A family of mercenaries hired to kill Vader shattered it on Cabarria with a tractor rifle while Vader pulled the other way with the Force [1]. Vader then designed a hilt of his own aboard his starship on the way back to Coruscant, built around the bled crystal, and showed it to Sidious [1].
Wookieepedia describes the result as a cylindrical, straight hilt about 28 centimetres long, made of alloy metal and carbon composite, with a black ridged grip, a beveled emitter shroud, two dual-phase focusing crystals and a diatium power cell [1]. Wookieepedia also says Vader kept adjusting and upgrading it [1]. Those are in-universe specifications from the fan wiki, and I found no on-screen source that states them.
Where Vader’s red lightsaber appears
The list below covers live-action film and series appearances plus two games. Wookieepedia’s full list also holds many comics, novels and shorts that this page does not attempt to cover [1].
| Title | Year | What the saber does there | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| A New Hope | 1977 | First appearance; kills Obi-Wan on the Death Star | [1][5] |
| The Empire Strikes Back | 1980 | Cuts off Luke’s hand on Cloud City | [1] |
| Return of the Jedi | 1983 | Final duel with Luke; lost with Vader’s hand | [1] |
| Star Wars Rebels | 2014 to 2018 | Used against the crew on Lothal and against Ahsoka Tano on Malachor | [1] |
| Rogue One | 2016 | Vader ignites it to cut through rebels on the ship carrying the Death Star plans | [1][5] |
| Jedi: Fallen Order (game) | 2019 | Brief appearance at the end | [5] |
| Obi-Wan Kenobi | 2022 | Duels Obi-Wan on Mapuzo and a barren moon, and fights the Third Sister | [1] |
| Jedi: Survivor (game) | 2023 | Vader appears as a boss | [1][5] |
Revenge of the Sith (2005) needs a note. The Databank lists that film for the character [8], but Anakin fights Obi-Wan there with blue sabers, and Wookieepedia does not list the film among appearances of the red saber [1][3]. The handbook card for Vader also lists the film among his saber appearances (handbook/sabers/darth-vader-red.md), and it is marked unverified, so treat that entry as unsupported [7]. For a film by film list of every blade, see every lightsaber by film.
What happened to Vader’s lightsaber
The canon account is short. Luke cut off Vader’s right hand in the throne room duel at Endor, and the hand, still holding the saber, fell into the reactor shaft of the second Death Star [1].
Then the story splits again. Wookieepedia says that after the Battle of Endor the saber became an object of worship for a Sith cult, the Acolytes of the Beyond, who bought what they believed was the weapon from a junk dealer on Taris [1]. The page marks that ownership as only possible, so do not read it as a confirmed relic [1].
Canon and Legends
Canon is the continuity Lucasfilm treats as current. Legends is the label for the licensed stories that came before the April 2014 reset [6].
In Legends, Vader’s saber was also built in 19 BBY, but with a synthetic crimson crystal that Sidious supplied, and it replaced the blue saber Obi-Wan took on Mustafar [2]. Later Vader swapped the synthetic crystal for a crimson Adegan crystal [2]. The Legends page says a renegade clone of Starkiller briefly held the saber against him, and that the weapon ended the same way, in the Death Star II reactor shaft [2].
The big difference is the crystal. Canon uses a bled natural kyber crystal from a Jedi. Legends uses a synthetic one [1][2]. That is why a quick search can leave you with two different stories for the same hilt.
The dual-phase note
Both versions describe the saber as a dual-phase design, where the blade length can be changed by hand [1][2]. Wookieepedia lists the function among the hilt’s features, next to its power and length adjustment knobs [1]. That is a fan wiki description of the in-universe design, not something a film states. If you want a real hilt whose blade length changes, see the retractable lightsaber guide.
How the film prop was made
The red blade is a film effect. Wookieepedia says early shooting used a reflective spinning dowel that caught light for the camera, and Lucas was unhappy with the glow, so it was added with rotoscoped animation [1]. During that stage, the blades were given different colours, and Vader’s became red [1]. Wikipedia’s article on the lightsaber gives the same outline, naming rotoscoping as the way the glow was added after the on-set rods looked like rods during the Obi-Wan and Vader duel [6].
For the hilt in A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, Wookieepedia says the prop was made from a British three-cell MPP Microflash camera flash attachment, with ridged plastic track glued on for the grip and a switch plate made from a 1974 calculator display [1]. The same entry says the original prop went missing before Return of the Jedi, and a lookalike was made from a Graflex flash tube [1]. It adds that some people believe the first two films used a stunt saber or a modified Skywalker saber [1]. That part is hedged on the page, so I treat it as unsettled.
Wikipedia credits Roger Christian with the original Graflex based hilts for Luke’s saber [6]. That is a separate prop from Vader’s.
Real world replicas
Replicas of Vader’s hilt exist, and this site does not rate them here. Hasbro lists a Star Wars The Black Series Darth Vader Force FX Elite lightsaber as a collectible rated for ages 14 and up, with advanced LEDs, a removable kyber crystal and a display stand [9]. The page says its design is based on the red saber from Obi-Wan Kenobi [9]. It needs three AA batteries that are not included [9]. Hasbro’s page did not show a price when I read it on 2026-11-09, so check a retailer.
To compare licensed collectibles with other hilts, see Black Series Force FX lightsabers, the lightsaber replica guide and the conversions and replicas guide. For whether any of these count as a real saber, read real lightsaber.
Sources
- Wookieepedia, Darth Vader’s lightsaber (canon), https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Darth_Vader%27s_lightsaber (read through the public API, accessed 2026-11-09); handbook file handbook/sabers/darth-vader-red.md
- Wookieepedia, Darth Vader’s lightsaber (Legends), https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Darth_Vader%27s_lightsaber/Legends (accessed 2026-11-09)
- Wookieepedia, Skywalker lightsaber, https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Skywalker_lightsaber (accessed 2026-11-09)
- Wookieepedia, Anakin Skywalker’s first lightsaber, https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Anakin_Skywalker%27s_first_lightsaber (accessed 2026-11-09)
- Wikipedia, Darth Vader, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darth_Vader (accessed 2026-11-09)
- Wikipedia, Lightsaber, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightsaber (accessed 2026-11-09)
- Handbook card handbook/sabers/darth-vader-red.md (marked unverified in its own header)
- Star Wars Databank, Darth Vader, https://www.starwars.com/databank/darth-vader (accessed 2026-11-09)
- Hasbro Consumer Care, Star Wars The Black Series Darth Vader Force FX Elite Lightsaber, https://consumercare.hasbro.com/product/star-wars-the-black-series-darth-vader-force-fx-elite-lightsaber-collectible-with-advanced-led-and-sound-effects/D0229ACF-F68F-4F2C-B9EC-2EC66C86CC98 (accessed 2026-11-09)
FAQ
What colour is Darth Vader’s lightsaber?
Red. In canon the crystal was bled on Mustafar, turning it from green to red [1]. In Legends the crystal was synthetic and crimson [2]. The lightsaber colors page covers all the blade colours.
What lightsaber does Darth Vader use?
A single red saber with a black cylindrical hilt that he built around 19 BBY, after he lost his blue one on Mustafar [1]. He used a stolen Jedi hilt for a short time before that [1].
What happened to Darth Vader’s lightsaber?
It fell into the Death Star II reactor shaft when Luke cut off Vader’s hand at Endor [1]. A Sith cult later believed it had found the weapon, though the wiki treats that as possible only [1].
Is Vader’s lightsaber a dual phase saber?
Wookieepedia calls it a dual-phase design with a manually adjustable blade length, in both canon and Legends [1][2]. The films do not name it.
Did Vader have more than one lightsaber?
Yes. As Anakin he had two blue sabers [3][4]. As Vader he used Kirak Infil’a’s hilt, then built his own red one [1]. In Obi-Wan Kenobi he also fought with half of the Third Sister’s split saber [1].
Was Vader’s saber red in Revenge of the Sith?
No red saber of his appears in the film’s listing on Wookieepedia, and Anakin’s blue sabers are used there [1][3].
Where can I read about Anakin’s sabers?
The blue Skywalker saber continues on the Luke Skywalker lightsaber page, and Obi-Wan’s side is on the Obi-Wan Kenobi lightsaber page. For Maul, who also carries red, see Darth Maul’s lightsaber.
Editorial team
Writes for Saber Forge Forum. Every guide is checked against the maker's specs and dated, so you know how fresh it is.
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