“Star Wars” franchise star Mark Hamill hasn’t always seen eye-to-eye with the creative choices made from the original trilogy to the modern films he participated in. Previously, he was vocal about Rian Johnson‘s ideas on how to tackle a gizzled-out and disillusioned Luke Skywalker, and it seems like there are still aspects that rub him the wrong way.
While promoting his new movie “The Life of Chuck” on The Today Show, the actor brought up some of that head-butting with George Lucas on “Star Wars: Return of The Jedi” not going darker, only for the more recent films to bump off the OG lineup in each installment.
READ MORE: 13 Films To See In June: ’28 Years Later,’ ‘F1,’ ‘Materialists,’ ‘Ballerina’ & More
“When I would complain about things, in the third one, I said, ‘Luke has lost his hand, he’s got the black glove, shouldn’t it be about Luke struggling with turning to the dark side?’ George said, ‘Mark, it’s for children.’ And that’s why he would never consider killing any of the main characters. In the new ones, they pop us off one at a time,” Hamill said recently on The Today Show.
Hamill is, of course, entitled to his opinions, but we don’t know if the comparison is all that accurate. This reasoning from Hamill seems to ignore that the death of former Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi in the original movie seemed to mirror what was going on with the deaths of Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, and Leia in the newer movies (a combination of sacrifices and passing of the torch). With Lucas’ sentiment mentioned by Hamill in mind, the sequel trilogy leads Rey, Finn, and Poe Dameron managed to walk away with their lives (although Kylo Ren/Ben Solo died).
The real death of Carrie Fisher was always going to be difficult for the studio to navigate when it came to doing another film with Leia.
Then again, Lucas threw away the “children” reasoning with the prequels as they spend a lot of time on trade policies, politics, and bureaucracy which we all know are what kids are clamoring from their “Star Wars” projects (“Andor” does this but isn’t exactly written for 8 year olds). Not to mention the lead character of “Star Wars: Revenge of The Sith,” Anakin Skywalker, not only kills younglings at the Jedi Temple but also contributes to the death of a pregnant Padme, as dark as it gets.
Also, Luke went to “the dark side” in the Legends material, which isn’t seen as official canon, but it happened when Lucas was running things. So, Hamill’s instinct there was correct, too bad it never happened on screen.
What does the future hold for the sequel trilogy characters?
Lucasfilm has been trying hard to move forward with another Rey Skywalker movie starring Daisy Ridley, but they’ve been focusing on making sure it is up to snuff before allowing director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy to get cameras rolling on “Star Wars: New Jedi Order.” Meanwhile, on deck is Shawn Levy‘s “Star Wars: Starfighter” starring Ryan Gosling and Mia Goth is expected to have a close connection to the sequel trilogy timeline and we’ll be curious to see how far they go with the connective tissue despite talk of the new movie being more of a standalone adventure in a galaxy far far away.
You can watch that exchange with Hamill on the Today Show below.
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
