Discussion Mark Hamill 'fundamentally disagreed' with Luke's story for TLJ

Good post. Although I really enjoyed TFA, I admit much of the euphoria was more of a "Yay, Star Wars is back!", as opposed to a glowing admiration of substance. When it was announced that there would be an Episode VII, I hoped against hope for not so much a reboot, but at least enough "distance" between itself and ROTJ so that we could move on from the original characters. I confess some of this stems from finding ROTJ to be a phoned-in effort on many fronts that left a bad taste in my mouth, and thus was more than ready to cleanse my palate.

That said, TFA was fun, and the grounds by which I thought a shake-up was necessary, were invalidated (Harrison Ford was awesome, Carrie Fisher was serviceable with what she had to work with). But is it enduring? Eh...I think I've watched it at home once, and even then it was hard to stay focused. If not for Ben/Kylo and the mystery that could see his arc go in so many profound directions, TFA is something I would pull off the shelf like I would, say, "Alien vs. Predator"; popcorn fun that I don't have to be really "into" to enjoy.

Seems like it's been ages since TFA, and R1 sadly didn't fill the void like I'd hoped, so here's hoping for big things from TLJ!

 

I think Mark Hamill is great, love how outspoken he can be. I think I'll just wait and see what fun they have in store for the character.

 

If Mark disagreed fundamentally with how the character Luke was in the script, then Mark thought there was something wrong at Luke's foundations and most basic level. This could prove disastrous. I don't know.

Spoiler

As much as I want to enjoy the second third of TFA, even from the teaser trailer there appears to be something fundamentally different about Luke Skywalker.

 

Damage control..

 

Except he didn't really clarify much. Just said he didn't do a good job of saying it, but didn't really retract anything that he had already said.

 

"..... it was a fifty fifty shot on whether you'd be going left or right.

You see we're both going left.

You could have just as easily been going left, too. And if that was the case... It would have been a while before you started getting scared.

But since you're going the other way, I'm afraid you're gonna have to start getting scared... immediately! "

 

You know, at first I did have some concern when I heard that Mark supposedly had some sort of issue with Johnson's choices for his character. But over time, I actually learned to see it in a different way: His feelings on it kind of makes me excited now actually, because that shows me that there's obviously something new and unexpected coming on the horizon for tha saga – and actually after seeing TFA, that's really what I had hoped for at this point.

 

Mark Hamill is probably just venting about the costume changes. Probably at one point, some kind of Force magic is going to have him as green as Yoda, and Mark didn't like it.

 

Let's get this out of the way... Luke is my favorite character and I love Mark Hamill. But let's be clear, Mark has some fairly, ummmm.... BASIC ideas when it comes to storytelling. And when pressed, he'll freely admit it. Remember he thought it would be great if it was HIS character to whom the lightsaber flew in TFA. I admit before the film came out, I would have been delighted with that. But ya know what? What we got was WAY more emotional, IMO. It was just better story telling. Mark may want a glorious return for Luke in TLJ, and I think Rian is probably all like, "Not yet. Luke was gone for years for a reason. We have to explore that reason."

Here's what Hamill said in Vanity Fair:

and on the red carpet at the Tony awards:

 

Okay, boys and girls keep your shirts on and lets look at the facts. First, Rian Johnson's "good guys" in his movies are usually not really that good, as he seems to like moral ambiguity. So, most likely this will not be comparable to any Luke Skywalker we have been accustomed to, in the past. Which might be reason alone to freak out, but wait there's more. First, worse case scenario, remember Terminator Genisys? Oh wait, you mean the one I am trying to forget? Yes, that one. Remember how John Connors was totally taken out of character, so that he never fulfilled his destiny? Luke maybe headed down a similar road. Freak Out! Now, I will bring you back from the brink, Luke will have a change of heart for some reason and by the end of Episode 8, he will be back his old Return of the Jedi self, at least mentally.

 

Except the one that gleefully destroyed ALL of Jabba The Hutt's entourage in order to rescue his one friend.

 

Uh oh. That's not a good sign. From the trailer, it's possible that Luke has become darker of a character following his failure with Ben Solo. Mark Hamill may also be upset about how and when Luke is slated to die, whatever that situation may be.

I hope it's because there's a dark fate in store for Luke, instead of writing:dialogue reasons.

 

I suspect it's more complicated than that. Hamill is a great guys, but his crative ideas tend to be.... ummm... not that great, as he himself observed in the quotes above. I suspect than the 30+ years since Jedi, Luke came to learn things that changed his perspective. He may be "dark" in that he is no longer the naive, cockeyed optimist he was in his 20's, but LFL understands the central role Luke plays, amd they will be conscious of that as they move forward.

 

What Strongbow said. It would be kind of silly if Luke hadn't changed much in three decades.

 

I'd have loved it if Luke was on the quirky side. Not quite like crazy chuckling Yoda, but you know, a little mischievous, with a twinkle in the eye. As it is, I don't get the impression that he'll be anything like that, but who knows? Maybe, once he's accepted Rey as his apprentice and they get to work, he'll lighten up a bit.

Of course, quirky old man Luke would've worked best in the company of grumpy old man Han...

 

I expect no less

 

I believe Rian Johnson has some thing cooked up for us, that will be unabashedly, shocking, dark, heart wrenching and tragic with Luke, and I will forgive him for that as long as Luke doesn't end that way. If he does, then I am planning on ignoring the Sequel trilogy as a part of my "canon."

 

We'll find out soon enough, but in the linked video clip Mark used the disagreement to set-up the fact he was wrong about 7.
This seems like a typical self-deprecating talk where a person talks about how they feel and contrast it with reality citing being wrong previously and therefore their feelings may not be an issue.