Disney's new 'real' lightsaber looks just like the movie version

Oh, it's beautiful.

Disney Parks on Tuesday revealed a "brand-new, more realistic lightsaber" that's set to debut at Walt Disney World Resort next year. The tease, appropriately, dropped on May 4th, which fans celebrate each year as Star Wars Day.

The lightsaber, which was developed by Walt Disney Imagineering Research and Development, has an actual retractable "blade" of light, according to CNN, and Entertainment Weekly notes it's Disney's first such realistic retractable lightsaber. It's set to be used as part of the new "all-immersive, two-night vacation experience" called Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida.

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"This new lightsaber creates dramatic in-person moments previously only seen in films or shows," Disney said.

While Disney didn't delve into how the lightsaber was made, The Verge wrote that it appears to work like a "motorized tape measure, retracting and extending a sheet of plastic and LED lights to mimic the ignition effect." Sadly, though, the lightsaber isn't "real" in the sense that it can legitimately slice through Sith flesh and chop Supreme Leader Snoke in half, but don't put it past Disney's Imagineers to make one of those some day. Never tell them the odds. Brendan Morrow

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