Lightsabres vs. Magic Wands Trivia Quiz

Answer: Helena Bonham Carter

Helena Bonham Carter was born in London in 1966. She started her acting career in movie theatres with the title role in "Lady Jane Grey" (1986) and the role of Lucy Honeychurch in "A Room with a View" (1985). Other great roles were Ophelia in "Hamlet" (1990) and Amanda in "Mighty Aphrodite" (1995).

In 2007 she appeared as Bellatrix Lestrange in "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix", a role she reprised in "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" (2009), "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1" (2010) and " Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2" (2011). Since Helena played in the "Harry Potter" movies, she also won acclaim for her roles in "Sweeney Todd: The Barber of Fleet Street" (2007) and "Les Miserables" (2012). One of the main differences between wand wielders and lightsabre fighters is that the users of magic wands have their own signature moves, far more recognisable than the fighting styles various lightsabre fighters have adopted. Bellatrix Lestrange was especially feared for her Cruciatus curse: a spell that causes the victim to writhe in agony.

In "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" (2007) she tried to convince Harry to use Bellatrix' signature curse on her, by proudly boasting "I killed Sirius Black" (Harry's godfather). Later on she used the Cruciatus curse on Hermione in "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1".

Answer: Matthew Wood

Matthew Wood (born 1972 in California) is best known for his work in the sound department of several movies. However, he did voice several characters in the "Star Wars" official franchise and the spin-off movies.
Matthew Wood started his career as voice actor in "Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace" (1999) as two minor characters. His voice role of General Grievous in "Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith" gained him a place in this quiz. Besides the "Star Wars" products (including also the video games), Matthew Wood also voiced several characters in movies such as "Smurfs: the Lost Village" (2017) and worked as sound assistant on several videos and TV movies in the series "The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones" (1999-2002).
General Grievous was a cyborg (part human, part droid) with four arms, and he was trained to use four lightsabres at once. This gave Obi-Wan Kenobi (played by Ewan McGregor) a very hard time when he had to duel the general on the planet Utapau ("Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith", 2005). Another instance of someone using several lightsabres at once was Rey Skywalker, using Anakin's and Leia's lightsabres simultaneously to withstand the lightning flashes sent to her by her grandfather Palpatine in "Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker" (2019).
Apparently it is perfectly feasible to use more than one lightsabre simultaneously. Wielding two (or more) magic wands at the same time is never demonstrated in the "Harry Potter" franchise movies. As shown in various lesson scenes, one needs to keep focused when using a magic wand. Using two wands at the same time could be possible in theory, but focusing on two different actions is very hard.

Answer: Daniel Radcliffe

Radcliffe was born in 1989. In 1999 he debuted as the young David Copperfield in the eponymous TV series. In 1999 he started to portray the title character in the "Harry Potter" franchise. Other projects of his were the movie "Swiss Army Man" (2016), the TV series "Miracle Workers" (2019-2020) and the theatre plays "Equus" (2007-2009) and "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead" (2017).
I would suspect everyone who takes this quiz is familiar with the "Harry Potter" franchise. However, in case you may have found this quiz by sheer accident, I'll explain in a nutshell. Harry Potter was a young wizard, whose parents were killed by the evil wizard Lord Voldemort when Harry was only one year old. Miraculously he survived Voldemort's murder attempt, and henceforth Harry was Voldemort's archenemy. Harry and Voldemort confronted each other on several occasions, and in the eighth movie Harry finally succeeded in destroying Voldemort.
Although the wizarding world described in the "Harry Potter" saga did not know any defense against the killing curse Avada Kedavra, Harry did survive this curse - not once, but several times. Indeed, Harry survived the killing curse in four of the eight movies. The reason he survived each and every time, is not always quite clearly stated in the movies (the books give a bit more detail).
In the "Star Wars" saga, on the other hand, we could see several people using their light sabres to toss aside deadly beams from blasters (sophisticated firearms) as if throwing aside a spear or arrow.

Answer: Samuel L. Jackson

Samuel Leroy Jackson was born in Washington DC in 1948. He started his career in 1973 with a minor role in "Together for Days". Some of his best roles include Jules Winnfield in "Pulp Fiction" (1994) and Major Marquis Warren in "The Hateful Eight" (2015). In the "Star Wars" franchise Jackson played a Jedi master named Mace Windu who appeared in all three prequel movies: "Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace" (1999); "Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones" (2002) and "Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith" (2005).
In most of the "Star Wars" franchise movies, the villains (Sith masters and Sith apprentices) used red lightsabres, while the Jedi used green or blue lightsabres. Mace Windu was one of the few exceptions: he was the only one in the franchise films who fought his battles using a purple lightsabre. According to Wikipedia, this was at Jackson's own request: he wanted a distinctive weapon. Oddly enough, neither IMDb nor Rotten Tomatoes mention such a request. In the final scene of "Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker" (2019) we see Rey had turned her staff into a yellow lightsabre.
In the "Harry Potter" franchise, the magic wands did not have bright colours, but some spells and curses emitted a bright ray. Contrary to the colour code in "Star Wars" (red for evil, green or blue for good), the green ray emitted by a wand was the most gruesome spell: the Killing Curse Avada Kedavra. The red rays were usually associated with the stunning spell, which was less dangerous (as the effects could be healed).

Answer: John Hurt

Sir John Vincent Hurt (1940-2017) was born in Derbyshire, England. He started his long career in 1961-1962 with roles in the TV series "Probation Officer" and "Z Cars". Some well-known movies in which he appeared were "A Man for All Seasons" (1966), "Alien" (1979), "The Elephant Man" (1980) and "Nineteen Eighty-Four" (1984). He also played the role of Caligula in the TV series "I, Claudius" (1976).
In the "Harry Potter" franchise, Hurt played the wand maker Garrick Olivander. He appeared in "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" (2001) as well as in the two final movies "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I" (2010) and " Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2" (2011).
When Ollivander sold Harry Potter his first wand, he told Harry that the phoenix who gave one feather as core of Harry's wand, also provided one other feather - that served as the core to the wand belonging to "He Who Must Not Be Named" (only the very braved called him Lord Voldemort).
The movies didn't explain how a magical wand is made. The only indication was the many lines in which Ollivander cited some body part of a mythical creature (dragon's heartstring, phoenix feather, unicorn hair...) inside a certain type of wood (hazel, oak, hawthorn...).
In the "Star Wars" franchise (episodes I to IX), we didn't get any information about the production of light sabres. Related media indicated that someone who was strong in The Force, could build a light sabre by inserting a kyber crystal in a hilt and meditating about the desired colour and effects.

Answer: Ray Park

Raymond Park was born in Glasgow in 1974. He started his career in the movie "Mortal Kombat: Annihilation" (1997). Furthermore, he appeared in "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" (2009) and "G.I. Joe: Retaliation" (2013).
As for the "Star Wars" universe, Park played Darth Maul in "Episode I: The Phantom Menace" (1999) and the spin-off movie "Solo: A Star Wars Story" (2018). Darth Maul used a highly original light sabre: not the usual single blade (with a length of about 60-90 cm or two to three feet), but two blades springing sideways from a central hilt. It made Darth Maul quite proficient in fighting two Jedi Masters at once.
In "Episode IX: Rise of Skywalker" we could briefly witness Rey imagining herself with a standard light sabre fighting against her own image wielding Darth Maul's double blade.
Other related media also showed other variations, including a double blade mounted on a ring.
In the "Harry Potter" franchise, magic wands all appeared quite alike : a length of wood in the reach between 8 and 16 inches (20 to 40 cm).

Answer: Emma Watson

Watson was born in 1990 in Paris, France, to English parents. She started her career in the "Harry Potter" movie franchise as Hermione Granger and played a major part in all eight movies. Furthermore, she starred in "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" (2012), "The Bling Ring" (2013) and "Beauty and the Beast" (2017).
Hermione Granger was the most talented young witch in the "Harry Potter" franchise. Although born to muggle (non-wizard) parents, "she is the brightest witch of her age" - as said by one of her teachers. Together with Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, Granger had a major part in bringing down the evil wizard Lord Voldemort. Personally I found Watson's greatest lines "I'm going to bed before either of you comes up with another clever idea to get us killed or worse, expelled" ("Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone", 2001) and "That felt good" (after punching Malfoy on the nose in "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban", 2004).
In the "Harry Potter" franchise movies we witnessed dozens of girls and women duelling with magic wands. In the official "Star Wars" franchise though, only two women were shown using a light sabre (Leia Organa in only one brief scene and Rey Skywalker in the three sequel movies).

Answer: Daisy Ridley

Daisy Ridley (born 1992) started her career in 2012-2013 with some minor roles in some short movies (including the sci-fi short "Blue Season", 2013). In 2013-2014 she appeared in some TV series (for instance "Silent Witness" in 2014 and "Casualty" in 2013). When she got the main role in "Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens" (2015) she rose to stardom.
Daisy Ridley played Rey Skywalker in all three sequel movies: "Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens" (2015), "Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi" (2017) and "Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker" (2019). She also reprised this role in some spin-offs: the TV series "Star Wars: Forces of Destiny" (2017-2018), the video game "Star Wars: Battlefront II" (2017) and the short movie "Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance" (2019). Other notable movie roles for Daisy Ridley were Miss Mary Debenham in the 2017 movie "Murder on the Orient Express" and the title role in "Ophelia" (2018).
Rey Skywalker was one of the most interesting characters in the sequel movies. We first saw her on the desert planet Jakku, struggling for a life by dismantling an obsolete star ship and selling the parts. Meanwhile she hoped for the return of her parents, who mysteriously vanished when she was about six years old. She then got trouble with the First Empire as she hid a droid and a runaway former Storm Trooper (Finn, played by John Boyega). Fleeing Jakku in the Millennium Falcon, she met the legendary Han Solo (played by Harrison Ford) and Chewbacca the Wookie (role created by Peter Mayhew). Rey joined the resistance led by Leia Organa (played by Carrie Fisher) and discovered her ability to use the Force. After several light sabre duels with Kylo Ren (played by Adam Driver), she was finally able to convince him to leave the Dark Side and assume once again his original identity: Ben, the son of Han Solo and Leia Organa.
Rey fought all her light sabre duels with weapons she inherited from other people: the light sabre Anakin Skywalker used before he turned to the Dark Side, and the light sabre Leia Organa wielded in one single scene in "Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker". All the time, she was quite proficient using weapons that did not belong to her. In the "Harry Potter" franchise though, most wizards and witches claim that they had less success using the wand of another witch or wizard.

Answer: Gary Oldman

Oldman was born in 1958. He started his career in the theatre in 1979. His movie breakthrough was the biopic "Sid and Nancy" (1986). Some of the highlights of his filmography include the role of the vampire in "Bram Stoker's Dracula" (1992) and the role of Winston Churchill in "Darkest Hour" (2017). In the "Harry Potter" franchise, Oldman played Sirius Black, Harry's godfather, who could transform himself into a big black dog at will. He appeared in three movies : "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" (2004), " Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" (2005) and " Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" (2007).
Sirius Black demonstrated that it was possible to perform magic without a wand. After all, changing back from a dog into a human is done without wand, for even in the wizarding world it would be highly unlikely to see a dog wielding a magic wand. Transforming at will into an animal was the specialty of witches and wizards called Animagi, and in the movie series we saw several of those: professor Minerva McGonagall (sporting the alternate form of a tabby cat), Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew (who could transform into a rat), and Rita Skeeter (at will becoming an unspecified flying insect).
In the "Star Wars" franchise, there were other weapons at hand than the light sabres. Several people used blasters (a sophisticated sort of gun) or flew in spacecraft with gun turrets, but most of those trained to fight with light sabres had also the ability to control the Force and accomplish feats of telekinesis.

Answer: Frank Oz

Frank Richard Oznowicz (born 1944) shortened his family name to adopt the stage name Frank Oz. He followed his parents' career as a puppeteer. His first role was as Rowlf the Dog in "The Jimmy Dean Show" (1963-1966). Furthermore he portrayed various characters in "Sesame Street" (1969-2014) and "The Muppet Show" (1976-1981).
In the "Star Wars" franchise, Frank Oz portrayed Yoda in "Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back" (1980) and "Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi" (1983). He reprised his role in all three the prequel movies, as well as in the sequel movies "Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi" (2017) and "Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker" (2019). Yoda also appeared in "Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens" (2015), but this movie used only some archived voice fragments by Frank Oz.
Yoda was one of the most powerful Jedi, but he acted mostly as a guru. Only in " Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones" (2002) and "Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith" (2005) Yoda duelled Count Dooku (Christopher Lee) respectively Supreme Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid). In both these light sabre duels, Yoda demonstrated that not only humans could use these weapons, and that size does not matter.
In the "Harry Potter" franchise we rarely see a non-human with a magic wand. Winky the house elf was carrying Harry Potter's wand in a scene in "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" (2005). However, some semi-humans were also spotted using a wand: Rubeus Hagrid (a half-giant) and Fleur Delacour, who was a quarter Veela. (Veela were a magic race in which the women appeared as stunning beauties, but according to the books it was very unwise to anger them).