Mark Hamill is back revealing even more details that sound a lot better than the finished product in Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
The latest is in regards to George Lucas’ original vision for Star Wars Episodes VII, VIII and IX, which sounds like they would have focused on the Skywalker family and not soley on new characters.
Mark Hamill also reveals that Luke Skywalker would have been alive in Episode VIII and died in George Lucas’ version of Episode IX.
“I happen to know that George didn’t kill Luke until the end of [Episode] 9, after he trained Leia,” Mark Hamill revealed to IGN. “Which is another thread that was never played upon [in The Last Jedi].”
It’s known that George Lucas had written a treatment for the new Star Wars Trilogy prior to selling the franchise to Disney, but Kathleen Kennedy scrapped all those ideas in favor of J.J. Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan’s vision.
Kathleen Kennedy then scrapped J.J. Abrams’ own vision for the trilogy and let Rian Johnson go with Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
It’s known that Luke probably would have survived Abrams’ Star Wars: Episode VIII, as Mark Hamill revealed he agreed with original Episode IX director Colin Trevorrow’s use of Luke, but Hamill said he didn’t agree with Rian Johnson’s portrayal of the character (see below)
Now since Star Wars: The Last Jedi wasn’t that well received by fans and made less money than hoped (as reported by Wall Street Journal in January), J.J. Abrams is returning to direct Star Wars: Episode IX.
Mark Hamill actually joked that he hopes Luke is still alive (as all we all do, and that’s no joke).
“I refuse to believe that he’s gone,” Hamill told the BBC. “My theory is he just teleported to somewhere else and left his robe behind. He teleported to a nudist colony, that’s what I’m hoping.”
See below for more from Mark Hamill on Luke Skywalker.
Mark Hamill reveals the original epic ending to Star Wars: The Force Awakens was changed to accommodate Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi:
“When we were doing [The Force Awakens], Rian said, ‘We might have boulders floating to show your Force emanating’, so I was led to believe that I still had the Force and it was really strong in me,” Hamill said. “When I read [The Last Jedi] before [The Force Awakens] came out, I said ‘what?!” and called JJ [Abrams] or Rian [Johnson] to say, ‘Are you guys aware of this? Have you seen a cut? Is there floating boulders?’ And they said, ‘No, we caught that and we worked it all out.'”
Mark Hamill didn’t agree with Rian Johnson’s approach to Luke Skywalker in Star Wars: The Last Jedi:
I said to Ryan, I said, “Jedi’s don’t give up. 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. It’s somebody else’s story, and Ryan needed me to be a certain way to make the ending effective. That’s the crux of my problem. Luke would never say that. I’m sorry. Well in this version, see I’m talking about the George Lucas Star Wars. This is the next generation of Star Wars, so I almost has to think of Luke as another character. Maybe he is Jake Skywalker. He’s not my Luke Skywalker, but I had to do what Ryan wanted me to do because it serves the story well, but listen, I still haven’t accepted it completely. But it’s only a movie. I hope people like it. I hope they don’t get upset, and I came to really believe that Ryan was the exact man that they need for this job.
Mark Hamill agreed with Colin Trevorrow’s approach to Luke Skywalker in Episode IX (Trevorrow was fired):
The changes in the directors have been hard for me because I admire Phil so much. I admire Chris so much. I admire Colin, and their body of work. But again, it’s got to be real difficult to come to a meeting of minds on something this massive. I had discussions with Colin. I was very excited because we were on the same page in terms of where we wanted to go and how we wanted to see Luke in a way that we never seen him. Even in this current version. But I don’t know what went on. I don’t want to know because there is no upside to that story. I like all those people. I like Kathy, and I like Lawrence Kasdan and all the people involved in that decision, but sometimes ignorance is bliss. And they don’t tell me anything [laughs].
