Mark Hamill Talks About His Place in STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI - "It's Not About Luke Anymore"
One of the main reasons that I'm so excited about Star Wars: The Last Jedi is that Mark Hamill's Luke Skywalker plays a major role in it and we are going to see him fully back in action for the first time since Return of the Jedi.
During a recent interview with The Vancouver Sun, the actor talked about his hesitation about stepping back into the role of Luke and he also talks about the characters place in the continuing saga of the story.
When talking about his reluctance to be a part of the project, he said:
“It was scary. I thought, ‘Gee, it was hard to catch lightning in a bottle the first time. I don't know if this is such a wise idea.’”
I can see where he's coming from and how strange it would be to step into a character like this again after 30 years. I'm happy that he did decide to come back, though! He's looking pretty badass in the role!
Hamill went on to talk about coming up with a backstory for himself, which is something he's talked about before. He also explains that the story isn't about Luke anymore.
"[I]t's not about us anymore. In this new one, I was saying to Rian Johnson: I need to know my backstory. It was kind of unclear. You read where he is now and what he's doing now and sort of have to fill in the blanks for yourself. So I did do a backstory myself. It's not about Luke anymore, so it's not really important. But I had to make sense of it for myself."
When talking about Luke and his changes, he went on to say:
"Luke changed, I think, more than the other characters in the original trilogy, from callow farm boy to a Jedi in training to finally a Jedi master. What you're talking about is what really fascinated me. Between Return of the Jedi and Force Awakens, there's just decades of history that's unknown."
We have definitely seen a change in Luke. There were choices he made that affected him and some of these choices drove him to go into hiding. One of those choices was taking Ben Solo under his wing, thinking that he was the chosen one. It was previously explained:
"[Luke] made a huge mistake in thinking that his nephew was the chosen one, so he invested everything he had in Kylo, much like Obi-Wan did with my character. And he is betrayed, with tragic consequences. Luke feels responsible for that. That’s the primary obstacle he has to rejoining the world and his place in the Jedi hierarchy, you know? It’s that guilt, that feeling that it’s his fault, that he didn’t detect the darkness in him until it was too late."
I'm just super excited about seeing how Luke Skywalker's story arc plays out throughout the course of the saga. I hope to hell that he doesn't die like Han Solo did in The Force Awakens! Luke needs to live through this madness!