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From the coming-of-age hero in the first film to the wise mentor in the latest, Mark Hamill has taken Luke Skywalker on quite a journey in the last 40 years. After making only a brief, silent appearance in The Force Awakens , Luke is back properly in The Last Jedi . We talked to the actor about Luke’s evolution, the legacy of the franchise, new director Rian Johnson, and the cruelty of the fans.

First of all, all his films prior to this are so different from each other. Brick is so different from Looper which is so different from Brothers Bloom so he’s got that versatility and he’s so amiable, he’s not someone who curses or gets angry, he’s just a genuinely nice person.

So, it’s not important to the story or to the audience what went on, but for myself I had to make a backstory myself. And sometimes I talked to Rian about it but so much was left to the audience to make up for themselves.

Because Luke was always the most optimistic of all the characters, he believed so strongly and was so devoted to becoming a Jedi and following all the tenets that Obi-Wan and Yoda taught him, so it was difficult because it’s not Luke’s story anymore, it’s about Rey and the other new characters.

No, it wasn’t easy because there was such a long gap of unexplained activity. And then of course in VII it’s so enigmatic, when he turns around is he happy, is he suspicious, is he angry? When I read the screenplay I was shocked at how Rian decided to use Luke because I never expected that. Without giving anything away, in the trailer he says it’s time for the Jedi to end and that was a shock to me!

He’s also highly collaborative, he’ll listen to all of my terrible ideas and maybe find one or two that he likes, and he reshot an entire scene because of something that I suggested but I think even though I thought ‘how would he think I would do this? This is not something I’d do or say’, in a way that’s a good thing because he’s doing something that’s unexpected.

And if I were just another variation of Obi-Wan, we’ve seen it before. If I were a benign, elderly wizardly type, it would be fine but it would be something that we’ve seen before and I think that this film has an identity all of its own.

Yes, there are the elements that we all love in a Star Wars film; there’s action, adventure, humour, suspense and so forth, creatures and fantastic situations, but it doesn’t feel… people say ‘oh, it’s like Empire, it’s darker, right, and it’s the middle part so it can end tragically?’ I said, you know, it’s not like any of the ones that I’ve been in and I think that’s a good thing. You have to try and keep it fresh!

It does feel important that Star Wars try new things…

Exactly, yeah. And I think you should take risks. You can’t please everybody. God knows, I thought they were way too critical of the prequels and a lot of it was because it wasn’t what they wanted. And people become very possessive of it. It’s their story so God forbid you do something that doesn’t fit the preconceived notion of what they want.

I thought they were just so cruel to Jake Lloyd who did a fine job but they were mad because they didn’t want to see Darth Vader being an adorable little child. And I thought that was one of the things that was important, that at that age he could have been a young Luke Skywalker!

But I thought that was one of the remarkable things about the prequels. That if you take the wrong path, this could happen to anyone… I will never forgive some of the cruelty that they inflicted on that poor child when he did exactly what George wanted him to do.

Was it nice seeing a whole new generation fall in love with new Star Wars characters like Rey?

Yeah, and it’s generational. Those original tiny tots are now grown up, they have their own children and they pass on the stories, just the way it should be.

It made sense when I found out that Disney was buying it. Not only because they have an 80-year history of marketing family films but the Star Wars films to me are fairy tales. Even more than they are science fiction. They have a pirate and a wizard and a farm boy and a princess. When I read the original screenplay for the very first one I thought it was so Wizard of Oz!

I remember, we were riding George hard, because, I’ll tell you something, when he’s making a movie, at least when we were making Star Wars, he was so miserable! Not a miserable person but just depressed! He suffered so desperately that when we’d see him smile it was an accomplishment. And now he’s happier than he’s ever been! He’s married with a young child and he doesn’t have the burden of making these epic movies. It’s a win-win for him.

— SciFiNow Magazine #139

