Mark Hamill on returning to Star Wars as a changed Luke Skywalker

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Between his menacingly dark attire as well as his proclamation that "the Jedi must end," it's clear that the Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) we'll be re-introduced to in STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI will be a changed man. Not counting his all-too-brief cameo at the close of STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS, Rian Johnson's upcoming sequel will be the first time fans will really be able to catch up with the original STAR WARS hero, but Mark Hamill recently told the Associated Press that Luke won't be the same as we remember, thanks to the decades of unknown history between RETURN OF THE JEDI and THE FORCE AWAKENS.

Absolutely. Luke changed, I think, more than the other characters in the original trilogy, from callow farm boy to a Jedi in training to finally a Jedi master. What you’re talking about is what really fascinated me. Between “Return of the Jedi” and “Force Awakens,” there’s just decades of history that’s unknown. So I was wondering how they’re going to handle all this. Now, obviously, with “Force Awakens,” J.J. (Abrams) had a full plate. It was inevitable that they would push me down the line. I was sorry I wasn’t able to work with any of the original actors again. But it’s not about us anymore. In this new one, I was saying to Rian Johnson: I need to know my backstory. It was kind of unclear. You read where he is now and what he’s doing now and sort of have to fill in the blanks for yourself. So I did do a backstory myself. It’s not about Luke anymore, so it’s not really important. But I had to make sense of it for myself. What Rian came up with, I was stunned.

Although Mark Hamill is happy to be returning to the STAR WARS franchise again after all these years, he initially wasn't certain whether it was such a great plan. "When they asked me to come back, it was scary." Hamill said. "I thought, 'Gee, it was hard to catch lightning in a bottle the first time. I don’t know if this is such a wise idea.'" Another aspect which left Hamill feeling "maybe wrong about coming back" was that the original STAR WARS trilogy had a beginning, a middle, and an end, however, Hamill realized that there's two ways of looking at that.

On the one hand, it had closure. But if you look at it another way, it’s the story of how Luke went from becoming a farm boy to a Jedi and then the story ends. It would be like telling the story of how James Bond got his license to kill and became 007, and the story ends.

Whatever happens, I can't wait to see what Rian Johnson has cooked up for us.

STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI is set for a December 15, 2017 release.