The Battle of Utapau, also known as the liberation of Utapau, acted as one of the last decisive large-scale battles of the Confederacy of Independent Systems against the Galactic Republic in the Clone Wars, and was fought between the Separatist Droid Army and Grand Army of the Republic. After intelligence reports suggested General Grievous had fled to Utapau following the Battle of Coruscant, Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi and the 212th Attack Battalion were dispatched to deal with Grievous. After landing on Utapau alone ahead of the main clone force, Kenobi was directed by Tion Medon to the tenth level, where Grievous and the Executive Separatist Council were hiding aboard a modified core ship. Kenobi and Grevious dueled in single combat while their respective forces battled for control of Utapau. Although Kenobi succeeded in killing Grievous, his clone troopers turned against him after receiving the command to execute Order 66 from Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine. Kenobi survived, however, by fleeing Utapau in Grievous’ starfighter.

The Battle of Utapau first appeared in the 2005 film Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith, the third installment of the Star Wars prequel trilogy. The StarWars.com Encyclopedia entry for Tion Medon stated that two entire Republic brigades fought in the battle, but General Grievous’s later Databank entry instead stated a battalion of clone troopers were deployed. This article assumes the databank, being the more recent source, is correct.

According to stunt coordinator Nick Gillard, six IG-100 MagnaGuards were originally intended to join Obi-Wan Kenobi and General Grievous during their duel to defend the latter. While Ewan McGregor trained for a week to get the choreography right, George Lucas rewrote the scene by having Kenobi crushing just four bodyguards with a piece of the ceiling as Lucas realized that the fight wasn’t essential to the story, as well as the production running short of time.