Have you heard that not everyone loved the new Star Wars trilogy? Since J.J. Abrams kicked off the new Disney era of Star Wars, fans have been divided about the latest films in the Skywalker saga. Some have loved it, some have had legitimate concerns about the filmmaking, and others have used the films as an excuse to be racist and misogynist online.
Among those people with legitimate concerns about the film is Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hamill. He’s long expressed some of his complaints about the fates of Luke, Leia, and Han. Both Luke and Han died before they were properly re-united with the full main trio from the original films—something Hamill has made clear he wanted to happen.
In a new interview with Den of Geek, Hamill clarified his comments about the new movies:
The thing is, Luke changed so much between the first trilogy and the last trilogy. I got myself into trouble. I made a vow – I said that I’m not going to talk about the movies anymore, because I think it’s important for the audience to see them. My problem was, I wasn’t dealing with social media back then, where you say something and it goes around the world in 24 hours! If I were to answer your questions on paper, I’d think: oh, that sounds a little strong, or, I shouldn’t say this. But I have a tendency just to talk and talk and talk, and you can cherrypick. You know, I’ll be reading something, and say, “What moron said this?”, and then realise, “Oh, it’s me.” They can take selective comments you’ve made out of context and use it to support their argument: “See, Mark hated Star Wars!” “Did I?”
But, that said, he really did have some problems with the movies:
‘I just thought, Luke’s never going to see his best friend again. You look at it in a self-centred way. I said that it was a big mistake that those three people would never reunite in any way. I guess I was wrong, because nobody seems to care! I have to stipulate that I care, but it didn’t really seem to affect the larger audience. Luke, Han and Leia will never be together again, and I’ll probably never get to work with Harrison again. Then the second thing was that they killed me off. I thought: oh, okay, you should push my death off to the last one. That’s what I was hoping when I came back: no cameos and a run-of-the-trilogy contract. Did I get any of those things? Because as far as I’m concerned, the end of VII is really the beginning of VIII. I got one movie! They totally hornswoggled (tricked) me.’
He’s not wrong! Luke will never see Han again, and it’s unclear how Abrams will incorporate old footage of Carrie Fisher into Star Wars IX after the actress’s tragic death. However, Hamill does appear in Star Wars IX in some capacity, and it sounds like even after production wrapped on that film, he still has some problems with what happened to his character. (Side note: I’m also going to start using the term hornswoggled in everyday conversation.)
But, as Hamill notes in this interview, he’s as invested in these films as any fan out there.
I was once describing Star Wars fans, and I said, they’re passionate, they’re opinionated, and they feel a sense of ownership, because they’ve invested so much time in these characters and these stories, and I realised I was describing myself. It can get you into trouble, because I don’t control the storylines. I’m sort of like a musician. I read the music, and I try to play it to the best of my ability. That doesn’t necessarily mean I like the tune, but that’s not my job.
Which is an important distinction, because fan-service doesn’t make a good movie, that just makes crappy fan fiction. Yes, it’s a bummer for Hamill that he never got to work with Harrison Ford again, but it makes for a more emotional film that the cost of Luke Skywalker’s self-imposed exile was the death of his closest friend.
Source: Mark Hamill Star Wars Complaints – The Luke Skywalker Actor Has Problems With The Last Jedi