Warning: If you’ve not seen Star Wars: The Last Jedi, don’t read ahead, because there are SPOILERS, innit.
Mark Hamill, Luke Skywalker out of Star Wars, the voice of the Joker in loads of animated Batman stuff, and Cock-Knocker from Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back, has issues with how Skywalker is portrayed in the last Star Wars film, The Last Jedi.
(He’s basically really miserable, broken and cynical throughout it all, then comes along at the end and saves the day, but in a sort of astral projection way, and then he quietly dies.)
Hamill voiced concerns on several occasions throughout the film’s production, telling writer-director Rian Johnson, “I fundamentally disagree with virtually everything you’ve decided about my character.”
He mentioned his dissatisfaction in a few interviews, telling IMDb “I’ve had trouble accepting what he saw for Luke” and Spanish outlet SensaCine “I almost had to think of Luke as another character.”
These comments were all leapt upon by people who didn’t like The Last Jedi, as proof that Mark Hamill hated the movie. The thing that complicates it all is, a lot of people who didn’t like The Last Jedi didn’t like it because they are arseholes. A lot of the loudest objections to it are stupid sexist ones about how Princess Leia couldn’t have the powers she shows in it, Rey shouldn’t ever be able to beat a boy in a fight because she’s just a girl, and Hondo should have at all times listened to Poe because he’s a man and knows what he’s doing or in other words: “stupid women, women are rubbish, mummy can I have some more cereal please, I’m so lonely.”
It’s also worth pointing out that Hamill disagreed with Irwin Kirshner when making The Empire Strikes Back and with George Lucas when making Return Of The Jedi, so of the four films in which Luke Skywalker’s been a major character, he’s only entirely enjoyed making the first one.
After he’d seen the finished film. Hamill took back a lot of what he’d said, saying that creative differences were an important part of filmmaking and being challenged was good.
He told Vanity Fair about his comments: “It was in-artfully phrased. What t I was was surprised at, was how he saw Luke, and it took me awhile to get around to his way of thinking. But once I was there, it was a thrilling experience.”
It turned out that the full quote he’d given IMDb was, “I’ve had trouble accepting what [Johnson] saw for Luke. But again, I mean, I have to say having seen the movie, I was wrong.” That’s very different to the ‘Mark Hamill hates this film’ narrative that got pushed.
A new two-hour documentary, The Director And The Jedi, takes an in-depth look at the disagreements between Hamill and Johnson, and how they ultimately feel about the film. It will be included on the The Last Jedi Blu-Ray, out on March 27th. Hamill apologised to Johnson at a Q&A following a screening of the documentary, telling the audience “I’m like a lot of you. I feel an investment in it—a certain sense of ownership, which is a joke, because I don’t own it, now Disney does. But you care. That’s what happens with these films. I’m sorry I lowered my guard and expressed my misgivings about it. That belongs in the process [of making a film]. That doesn’t belong to the public. I feel bad because I made that statement before I saw the finished film.”
It’s not known whether Luke will return in Episode IX as a Force ghost. Either way, the as-yet-untitled Episode IX will be released on December 19 2019.
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