Mark Hamill Would Have Loved to Play His Own Evil Twin in STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI

As we saw in the trailer for Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Luke Skywalker isn’t very optimistic about things. He’s in a dark place in his life and has exiled himself due to poor choices that he made over the course of his life. He’s basically brooding and wishing that he would have done things differently, especially when it comes to his relationship in Ben Solo a.k.a. Kylo Ren.

There are some fan theories out there that say Luke has embraced the Dark Side and gone bad, but I don’t think that’s the case at all. He’s just depressed and doesn’t want to screw up the universe any more than he thinks he already has. 

In a recent interview with Empire (via Movie Pilot), Mark Hamill shares his own thoughts on where he would have liked to see Luke’s story arc go and it involves an evil twin! Apparently, this is an actual idea that he pitched to Lucasfilm. Hamill said:

“Oh baby, would I love to play my own evil twin! It’d be great because you could maybe not reveal it’s Evil Luke until the real Luke shows up. We could watch this guy undermining the good guys secretly, maybe even killing a supporting character out of everyone’s sight so they all go, ‘What’s going on? He’s crazy!’ And then, of course, the good Luke shows up.”

Hamill went on to reveal what happened when he pitched the idea:

“When I suggested that storyline they said, 'Well, it's been done.”

That’s definitely an interesting direction to take the story and the character, but I’m glad that Lucasfilm passed on it. That might not be the best direction to continue the saga. The evil twin Star Wars storyline has also already been done. 

In case you don’t know, Timothy Zahn's Thrawn book trilogy featured an evil twin named Luuke Skywalker. Seriously! Luuke Skywalker was a genetic clone of the Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker, grown from cells extracted from the hand Skywalker lost during his duel with the Dark Lord Darth Vader on Cloud City. Luke explains in his journal:

"The clone that Joruus C'baoth created to test me with was the fulfillment of my vision in the cave on Dagobah. The reality was no less horrifying than the illusion. Imagine looking at your reflection in the mirror and seeing only…an enemy."

Here’s a details description from Wookieepedia:

Skywalker's hand and lightsaber were recovered by Vader and taken to Emperor Palpatine's Mount Tantiss storehouse on the planet Wayland. In 9 ABY, the insane clone Jedi Master Joruus C'baoth performed a mind trick on Imperial Grand Admiral Thrawn's subordinate, Captain Gilad Pellaeon, ordering him to make a special clone for him. The clone that later became Luuke Skywalker was grown in secret from sample B-2332-54, the sorting code assigned to Luke Skywalker's hand. The clone was grown in a Spaarti cloning cylinder over the period of less than a month. When he was ready, the clone was given Jedi training by C'baoth and over time became little more than an extension of C'baoth's will.

C'baoth wished to turn Skywalker and the former Emperor's Hand Mara Jade over to the dark side and take them on as his apprentices. When they refused, C'baoth incapacitated Jade and unleashed the Luuke clone, determined to have at least one Skywalker serve him. The clone, wielding the lightsaber Skywalker lost in Cloud City, faced off against Skywalker in the Emperor's throne room at Mount Tantiss. The clone's presence caused a buzzing pressure to form within Skywalker's mind, and Skywalker was constantly put on the defensive as the clone attacked with vicious thrusts of his lightsaber. The clone proved to have a similar proficiency in lightsaber dueling and Force techniques as Skywalker, utilizing Force attacks such as lightsaber throw. Eventually, Skywalker's sister, Leia Organa Solo, entered the throne room but was quickly neutralized by C'baoth. As Skywalker continued to lose ground to the clone, Jade found an opportunity to recover Organa Solo's lightsaber. Jade was able to slip under the clone's guard and kill him, and C'baoth was killed shortly thereafter. However, the entire experience went on to traumatize Skywalker in the days following.

Hamill didn’t really agree with the direction that Rian Johnson was taking the character at first, but he admits that he’s now realized that Johnson’s way was the right way to go.

“Being the caretaker of the character I have a possessive attitude towards him, but even though it’s not the way I would have gone, the more I got into the work, the more I realized I was wrong.”

Would you have liked to see Luke Skywalker face his evil in the saga?