In an interview, while promoting his History Channel Knightfall series, Mark Hamill again comments on Star Wars and echoes a lot of fans’ feelings toward what Disney did with the franchise and offers new insights including at times he has been outraged, shocked and tricked, even offering that some things were a big mistake.
Mark Hamill tells Den of Geek that he isn’t responsible for creating the stories, he is only a player in the game:
‘I was once describing Star Wars fans, and I said, they’re passionate, they’re opinionated, and they feel a sense of ownership, because they’ve invested so much time in these characters and these stories, and I realised I was describing myself. It can get you into trouble, because I don’t control the storylines. I’m sort of like a musician. I read the music, and I try to play it to the best of my ability. That doesn’t necessarily mean I like the tune, but that’s not my job.’
Hamill continues by revealing Disney chose to go with Mary Poppins Returns for the December 2018 release instead of Han Solo, which is something he didn’t agree with (both movies made less than $400 million). Hamill even says Disney can’t do much to him now about saying what is on his mind:
‘In our day, it was three years apart. Now they’re two years apart, with an independent movie (Rogue One, Solo) in between. I say to the executives at Disney, “Really? Han Solo five months after our movie? Give it a rest!” They say, well, we have to keep the schedule clear for Mary Poppins.’ He feigns outrage. ‘But I can be mouthy, because you know, what are they gonna do, fire me?’
Mark Hamill also comments on a big complaint amongst a lot of fans (and mine) which is that now we will never get to see the original actors reunited on screen, referring to it as a “big mistake.”
He remains shocked by Han Solo’s fate: slain by his own son and Luke’s nephew, the powerful Dark Side warrior Kylo Ren (formerly known as Ben Solo) in the sequel trilogy’s opening instalment, The Force Awakens. ‘I just thought, Luke’s never going to see his best friend again. You look at it in a self-centred way. I said that it was a big mistake that those three people would never reunite in any way. I guess I was wrong, because nobody seems to care! I have to stipulate that I care, but it didn’t really seem to affect the larger audience. Luke, Han and Leia will never be together again, and I’ll probably never get to work with Harrison again.
Mark Hamill also once again says he isn’t happy that Luke was killed off and offers that Disney tricked him:
Then the second thing was that they killed me off. I thought: oh, okay, you should push my death off to the last one. That’s what I was hoping when I came back: no cameos and a run-of-the-trilogy contract. Did I get any of those things? Because as far as I’m concerned, the end of VII is really the beginning of VIII. I got one movie! They totally hornswoggled (tricked) me.’
Regarding Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Hamill reveals just how clueless director Rian Johnson was about the movie:
‘They had me walking by 3PO, not even acknowledging him. I said: “I can’t do that! He (The Last Jedi’s director, Rian Johnson) said, “Okay, go over and do whatever.” So I went over, and I did whatever. They say it in the script: “Forget the past, kill it if you have to”, and they’re doing a pretty good job!’
Mark Hamill has also previously stated a few other things he hasn’t been happy with Disney Star Wars about:
Regarding what Mark Hamill had to say on Luke Skywalker: “I refuse to believe that he’s gone,” Hamill told the BBC back in March 2018. “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.”
Mark Hamill also revealed that the epic original 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.'”
He says he didn’t agree with Rian Johnson’s approach to Luke 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 says he 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].
