Mark Hamill on George Lucas’ original plan for the ending of Episode IX

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Luke Skywalker Mark Hamill Star Wars Episode IX The Last Jedi

SPOILERS for STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI. Before George Lucas sold Lucasfilm to Disney, he was already planning what would become the STAR WARS sequel trilogy, and Lucas' plot-outlines for those films were handed over as part of the deal. Although some elements of Lucas' ideas made it through, Disney ultimately chose to create brand-new stories and we're left with a bit of a mystery as to what might have been. While speaking with IGN, Mark Hamill shared a few details of what he knew of George Lucas's plans, including how Lucas would have ended STAR WARS: EPISODE IX.

"I happen to know that George didn’t kill Luke until the end of [Episode] 9, after he trained Leia. Which is another thread that was never played upon [in The Last Jedi]," Hamill said. Carrie Fisher's tragic passing coupled with Luke Skywalker becoming one with the Force at the close of STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI means that we're unlikely to see anything like Lucas' original idea in STAR WARS: EPISODE IX. Although, the thought of Luke's Force-ghost training Leia seems like it has potential. From what Mark Hamill said, it doesn't seem like George Lucas had a detailed script of how the sequel trilogy would shake down, but he did know the general beats of the whole trilogy, whereas Hamill likens Disney's approach to a bit of a relay race.

George had an overall arc – if he didn’t have all the details, he had sort of an overall feel for where the [sequel trilogy was] going – but this one’s more like a relay race. You run and hand the torch off to the next guy, he picks it up and goes. Ryan didn’t write what happens in 9 – he was going to hand it off to, originally, Colin Trevorrow and now J.J. […] It’s an ever-evolving, living, breathing thing. Whoever’s onboard gets to play with the life-size action figures that we all are.

STAR WARS: EPISODE IX will hit theaters on December 20, 2019.

Source: IGN

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Based in Canada, Kevin Fraser has been a news editor with JoBlo since 2015. When not writing for the site, you can find him indulging in his passion for baking and adding to his increasingly large collection of movies that he can never find the time to watch.