‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ Focuses On ‘New Generation,’ Mark Hamill Says
There is a reason why the Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer didn’t feature any of the original characters, according to Mark Hamill.
The actor, who is reprising the role he made famous almost 40 years ago, talked about his absence from the first teaser trailer director J.J. Abrams released the Friday after Thanksgiving. In a recent interview, Hamill told Yahoo! that Star Wars: The Force Awakens is all about the newcomers to the multi-billion dollar franchise.
“This is about the new generation of characters; I think that’s the most important thing. It’s the opening act of a whole new approach to the storytelling. So I never thought that the stories would be – first of all, I never thought I’d be involved in it again, period. And then when George (Lucas) said that they wanted to do more, I rightly assumed that it wouldn’t be our story, because we had a beginning, a middle, and an end. This must be our offspring and the current generation, with us there lending the kind of support that Peter Cushing and Alec Guinness did in the original. So no, that didn’t surprise me. And I mean, I’m one of those people where I just think, ‘Keep me out of it. I’ll ruin it, I’m sure!’ (Laughs) I’ll show up and just ruin the whole thing.”
And so it seems that the beloved characters from Star Wars: A New Hope, Luke Skywalker (Hamill), Han Solo (Harrison Ford), and Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) will only have supporting roles. The plot is set 30 years after the events of the last film of the original trilogy, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.
Mark Hamill also took the opportunity to comment about some of the new things we saw in the Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer, such as the droid BB-8, which is seen racing through the desert and has been dubbed the “ball droid.”
“They never cease to amaze me with what they’re able to come up with, you know? I said, ‘How are you ever gonna top R2-D2, the most adorable droid in movie history?’ And then they have this new one. I can’t even tell you his name, but you saw it in the trailer, and when they were demonstrating how they did this thing, live on set — because it’s not CGI, that’s a live prop — I was just amazed. They let me play around with it. (Laughs) I was running it all around at the creature shop up in Pinewood. I’m telling you, it’s an absolute delight. And not having thought that I’d ever go back there, to go back into that world, is just – I get the chills. It’s just so much fun.”
Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer focused on newcomers John Boyega (Finn), Daisy Ridley (Rey), Oscar Isaac (Poe Dameron), and the mysterious man in black is Kylo Ren.
[Image via Disney]
