New The Last Jedi pic shows us a more menacing Luke Skywalker than before

August 30th 2017, 2:10pm

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

I'm probably one of the most vocal critics of EPISODE VII, as I thought it was too nostalgic and retread-y, including – but not limited to – another desert planet with a day-dreaming hero, a cute robot with something secret to drive the plot, a main character's death at the end of act 2, and another fucking Death Star (that's a Death Star in anything but name). However, the new characters of Rey, Finn, Poe – and to a certain extent Kylo Ren – were all around excellent, and that's what actually makes me excited for EPISODE VIII. With the "familiarizing fans" bullshit out of the way, we can start paving the way to telling actually new stories. With LOOPER's Rian Johnson no less!

And that brings us to this picture of Mark Hamill, looking pretty menacing as Luke Skywalker dressed in all black:

This is taken from cover of Hungarian movie magazine Mozimania, with the ominous caption "Luke Strikes Back" under the picture (that is, if Google Translate is to be believed…), which is interesting unto itself.

On the other hand, Luke wore all-black throughout RETURN OF THE JEDI, and this design could just be a call-back to that. Admittedly, that particular story was about Luke fighting his dark impulses to truly become a Jedi master, but it's not like it ended with him wearing his brown robes to symbolize his full change or anything…at least not in the film itself. So I doubt there's going to be a "Luke is the bad guy" angle, but I'll appreciate any shades of gray we get.