When it comes to the Star Wars fandom, there’s a lot to love. They’re passionate, loyal, outspoken, and utterly devout. But when it comes to a certain subset of Star Wars fans, Mark Hamill has a bone to pick with them. See, the man who portrays Luke Skywalker in that galaxy far, far away has a big problem with the way certain fans treated the actor who played his father Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.

Despite the fact that the film came out nearly 18 years ago, Hamill still sounds quite peeved about the beating fans gave child actor Jake Lloyd, who was only 10 years old when he played Papa Skywalker in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. Here’s what Hamill told Vulture:

“I couldn’t believe some of the things they wrote about the prequels, you know. I mean really, beyond ‘I didn’t like it’. I’m still angry about the way they treated Jake Lloyd. He was only ten years old, that boy, and he did exactly what George [Lucas] wanted him to do. Believe me, I understand clunky dialogue.”

Aside from his admirable defense of 18 year old attacks on Lloyd, it’s also notable that he so openly acknowledges that Star Wars creator George Lucas never really had a gift for writing good dialogue. 

He has a point, of course, regarding Lloyd. When The Phantom Menace came out, after so much hype and so much anticipation, fans really came at it hard with criticisms- and not even an innocent child actor was spared from the venom. Hopefully, in the future, people will aim their vitriol where it really belongs when a movie isn’t terribly good: The Director and The Script.

We’ll get to see Hamill back in all of his Skywalker glory when Star Wars: The Last Jedi comes out this December.

SOURCE: Vulture (via CinemaBlend)