Mark Hamill has made an admission about Star Wars film The Last Jedi after criticising Luke Skywalker’s storyline.
The actor, who plays Luke Skywalker, expressed his regret over commenting publicly on the concerns he had over his storyline in the 2017 blockbuster sequel, which was directed by Rian Johnson.
During the promotional tour for the film, Hamill said he struggled to accept the way Johnson had decided to steer his beloved character, having played him since the very first Star Wars film, A New Hope, in 1977.
In The Last Jedi, Skywalker is shown to be a recluse living in self-imposed exile due to the fact his nephew, Ben Solo/Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), turned to the dark side
“Jedis don’t give up,” he previously said. “I mean, even if he had a problem, he would maybe take a year to try and regroup, but if he made a mistake, he would try and right that wrong, so right there, we had a fundamental difference, but, it’s not my story anymore.
Hamill continued: “It’s somebody else’s story, and Rian needed me to be a certain way to make the ending effective.” He also said that he views The Last Jedi ’s version of Skywalker as “another character” altogether.
Now, though, Hamill has said he thinks he “should have kept that to myself”, ascertaining that The Last Jedi is “a great movie”.
In a new podcast interview, the actor stated: “I’d love to clear this up – Rian Johnson is one of the most gifted directors I’ve ever worked with.”
He told Bullseye with Jesse Thorn podcast, as highlighted by IGN: “The fact that I went public with my dissatisfaction with the motivation for Luke becoming a suicidal hermit might have coloured things in a way that, maybe, I should have kept that to myself.
“But I kept saying to Rian, ‘This would just make Luke double down even more,’ and he said, ‘Well, your class at the Jedi Academy were wiped out.’ I said, ‘Rian, I saw entire planets wiped out! If anything, Luke doubles down and hardens his resolve in the face of adversity.’ So that’s all.”
Hamill instead fleshed out his own backstory for “why he is the way he is” as he didn’t “want to just say that I have bumped my head and I have brain damage”.
“[Rian] said, ‘Yeah, do whatever you want.’ So I made up a much, much darker backstory that I thought could justify him being that way.”
Hamill then shared what he came up with, continuing: “I thought, ‘What could make someone give up a devotion to what is basically a religious entity, to give up being a Jedi?’ Well, the love of a woman.
“So he falls in love with a woman. He gives up being a Jedi. They have a child together. At some point, the child, as a toddler, picks up an unattended lightsaber, pushes the button and is killed instantly. The wife is so full of grief, she kills herself. I thought that would be... because I hear these horrible stories about these children who find unattended guns and wind up dead. That resonated with me so deeply.”
Sadly for Hamill, Johnson “didn’t have the time to tell a backstory like that, I’m guessing. He just wanted a brief thing to explain it. And to me, it didn’t justify it”.
The actor told Johnson that “despite the fact that I disagree with your choices for Luke, I’m going to do everything within my power to make your screenplay work as best as I can”.
“And the only thing unfortunate about that is, I’ve heard comments from fans who think that I somehow dislike Rian Johnson, and nothing could be further from the truth.”
