‘Not My Luke Skywalker,’ Mark Hamill Doesn’t Care For His Role In ‘Star Wars; The Last Jedi’

Despite receiving rave reviews from numerous critics and already bringing in almost $600 million at the box office, there have been a lot of people who are not fond of Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Believe it or not, one of the key stars of the Star Wars universe is also not overly fond of certain things in the film, and that star is Mark Hamill. As a matter of fact, the main thing that Hamill didn’t like about the movie was Luke Skywalker.

In just a couple of weeks, The Last Jedi has already pulled in more than $590 million worldwide and is closing in on $300 million domestically. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a fresh rating of 92 from critics, but audiences have given it a rather mediocre 53 percent.

Please note that from this point forward, there some small spoilers for Star Wars: The Last Jedi. If you have not yet seen the film or simply don’t want to know, then stop reading now.

One of the major plot points in The Last Jedi is the return of Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker, which had fans overly excited. Unfortunately, many fans were not thrilled with the way Luke was depicted as they didn’t necessarily feel as if it was the iconic Jedi they have come to know.

Well, they’re not alone.

YouTube account Jar Jar Abrams interviewed with Mark Hamill, who talked in-depth about his role as Luke Skywalker in The Last Jedi. Believe it or not, Hamill didn’t agree with writer and director Rian Johnson’s vision for Luke, and the actor was quite conflicted about Luke’s behavior.

“I said to Rian, I said ‘Jedis don’t give up.’ I mean, even if he had a problem, he would maybe take a year to try and regroup, but if he made a mistake, he would try and right that wrong. So, right there, we had a fundamental difference, but, it’s not my story anymore. It’s somebody else’s story, and Rian needed me to be a certain way to make the ending effective.”

Hamill really drove home the mindset that many fans have brought forth on social media lately.

“I almost had to think of Luke as another character. Maybe he’s Jake Skywalker, he’s not my Luke Skywalker. I still haven’t accepted it completely, but it’s only a movie. I hope people like it. I hope they don’t get upset.”

As of now, it isn’t known where the Star Wars franchise is going with Episode IX, but the world knows it is far from over. It was just announced last month that a brand new trilogy in the saga is going to take place and that director Rian Johnson is in charge of it, as reported by The Verge.

Johnson isn’t shying away from responding to any criticism coming his way as he wants people to understand his vision for Star Wars.

The goal is never to divide or make people upset, but I do think the conversations that are happening were going to have to happen at some point if sw is going to grow, move forward and stay vital.

— Rian Johnson (@rianjohnson) December 21, 2017

UPDATE

Since this has come about, Mark Hamill has also spoken out to say that he may have been wrong about how he initially looked at Luke as per an interview with IMDB via Comic Book Movie.

“I’ve had trouble accepting what he saw for Luke, but again, I have to say, having seen the movie, I was wrong.

“I think being pushed out of your comfort zone is a good thing, because if I was just another benevolent Jedi, training young padawans…we’ve seen it, and no one can do it better than Alec Guinness and I shouldn’t even try.”

Some have said that this may be Hamill backtracking to make sure Disney isn’t angry with him and jeopardize any future roles that he may be in line for. Others see it as Hamill merely changing his point of view from participating in the role and then, seeing it and realizing it was done in the right way.

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Luke Skywalker is synonymous with the world of Star Wars as a character while Mark Hamill is the man who made that iconic hero come to life. When he speaks out in either a positive or negative light about the saga, fans are going to listen and take it very seriously. His comments about Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi may end up causing a lot more controversy for Disney, but no one can deny that the film is still receiving rave reviews and doing well at the box office.