Mark Hamill Shares His Thoughts On Disney Acquiring Lucasfilm

Even the one who brought order to the Force was shocked to hear Lucasfilm being purchased by Disney. Though much of the talk has been about the sale, reactions, and a possible plot for Star Wars: Episode VII, we are finally getting thoughts on what one of the Star Wars actors think about the sale.

In a recent interview, Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hamill, revealed that like many of us, he discovered the news of Disney buying Lucasfilm on the ‘net. Apparently he missed one very important call.

Hereâ€™s the full quote:

Oh my gosh, what a shock that was! I had no idea that George was going to sell to Disney until I read it online like everybody elseâ€¦ I missed his call yesterday, but I spoke to him maybe three weeks ago. But until we know more, itâ€™s hard to make any comment other than congratulations to George.

However, talks of continuing the Star Wars saga with a brand new trilogy started long before Disneyâ€™s massive purchase.

He did tell us last summer about wanting to go on and do [Episodes] VII, VIII, and IX, and that [newly appointed Lucasfilm president] Kathleen Kennedy would be doing themâ€¦Yeah, last August, he asked Carrie and I to have lunch with him and we did. I thought he was going to talk about either his retirement or the Star Wars TV series that Iâ€™ve heard aboutâ€”which I donâ€™t think we were going to be involved in anyway, because that takes place between the prequels and the ones we were in and, if Luke were in them, heâ€™d be anywhere from a toddler to a teenager so theyâ€™d get an age-appropriate actorâ€”or the 3-D releases.

But even though continuing the Star Wars saga with a new trilogy caught him by surprise, he understood why George Lucas would want to have rounded out the saga with one final trilogy and offers his explanation as to why it makes sense to have one more.

So when he said, â€œWe decided weâ€™re going to do Episodes VII, VIII, and IX,â€ I was just gobsmacked. â€œWhat? Are you nuts?!â€ [laughs] I can see both sides of it. Because in a way, there was a beginning, a middle, and an end and we all lived happily ever after and thatâ€™s the way it should beâ€”and itâ€™s great that people have fond memories, if they do have fond memories. But on the other hand, thereâ€™s this ravenous desire on the part of the true believers to have more and more and more material. Itâ€™s one of those things: people either just donâ€™t care for it or are passionate about it. I guess that defines what cult movies are all about. Weâ€™ll see. Iâ€™m anxious to know whatâ€™s going on, but the main story [yesterday] was the sale to Disney. I have mixed feelings about that, but they havenâ€™t done badly by Marvel and the Muppets and Pixar. Itâ€™s one of those big decisions that at first seems unusual but then the more you look at it, the more it makes sense.

At least Hamill is honest about it. There were a few who felt that Disney could only ruin the franchise. However, I feel that even though they own a majority of the rights to Star Wars â€“ 20th Century Fox still owns the rights to the first six films and it doesnâ€™t expire until 2020 â€“ Disney would not get in the way of the creative process for future Star Wars films. They haven’t gotten in Marvel’s way yet, and look how their film franchise is doing.

You can read the full interview on EW’s website.