Mark Hamill Says There's No Beef With Rian Johnson Despite ‘Last Jedi' Disagreement: He Made a ‘Great Movie' and ‘Maybe I Should've Kept' My Luke Skywalker Criticisms to Myself
Mark Hamill recently appeared on the 'Bullseye with Jesse Thorn' podcast (via IGN) to promote his latest movie, Mike Flanagan's 'The Life of Chuck,' and cleared up some of the confusion surrounding his thoughts on Rian Johnson's divisive 'Star Wars' movie 'The Last Jedi.' Hamill returned as Luke Skywalker in the film, although he was not the hero some fans remembered. This Luke was a miserable, hardened recluse living in self-imposed exile after his protege, Ben Solo, joined the dark side and became Kylo Ren. Luke blamed himself.
In interviews after 'The Last Jedi' opened in theaters, Hamill was honest about not loving this direction Johnson took with his character. He told Comic Book at the time that he 'still hasn't accepted' what happened to Luke and opposed such a dark heel turn. But in the new podcast interview, Hamill stressed that Johnson made 'a great movie' with 'The Last Jedi,' adding: 'I'd love to clear this up. … Rian Johnson is one of the most gifted directors I've ever worked with.'
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'The fact that I went public with my dissatisfaction with the motivation for Luke becoming a suicidal hermit might have colored things in a way that, maybe I should have kept that to myself,' Hamill admitted. 'But I kept saying to Rian, 'This would just make Luke double down even…' 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 believed Luke would become even more of a hero and an advocate for the Jedi in the wake of Ben Solo's betrayal. In order to go in the complete opposite direction that Johnson scripted, Hamill needed to convince himself that Luke was possible of such darkness.
'I said, 'Can I make up my own backstory of why he is the way he is? I don't want to just say that I have bumped my head and I have brain damage,'' Hamill said. [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.'
'I thought, 'What could make someone give up a devotion to what is basically a religious entity, to give up being a Jedi?'' Hamill then explained. '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. … But [Rian] 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.'
'That said — and I told [Rian] this — 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,' Hamill added. '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.'
Luke died in 'The Last Jedi,' although Hamill continued with the 'Star Wars' franchise by appearing as a Force Ghost in 'The Rise of Skywalker' and then using de-aging technology to appear as a young Luke in the series 'The Mandalorian' and 'The Book of Boba Fett.' Hamill told Comic Book earlier this year he has no plans to return as Luke.
'I had my time,' Hamill said. 'I'm appreciative of that, but I think they should focus on the future and all the new characters.'
Listen to Hamill's full interview on the 'Bullseye with Jesse Thorn' podcast here.
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