In the latest Empire Magazine Star Wars: The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson discusses arguments with Mark Hamill over Luke Skywalker. Of course, this is not a ‘new’ story as such. We have already heard the same tale from another angle as Hamill himself has talked about giving his input on Luke’s journey. Before Hamill finally saying, ‘okay, how do you want me to play this for you?’ in the end.
Ultimately as far as Johnson’s side goes, it’s pretty much the same story.
“I mean… It was also ultimately… To the point where I… I’m choosing my words carefully, not to be diplomatic, but I don’t want to frame Mark’s experience of this through my lens because there’s no possible way I can ever put myself in the shoes of Mark, or Carrie [Fisher], having lived their entire lives being known as these characters. And what it’s like to play them first in their twenties, and then to come back and play them in these movies and have a script handed to you saying, ‘Well, it’s this now’… I can never fathom what that experience is like. It’s impossible.”
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“If Mark Hamill is talking to me about Luke Skywalker, I’m gonna listen to him, and I gotta think about that and argue with him and go back and forth. And genuinely plumb the depths of my soul and what I wrote and figure out if this seems right. Also, though, remembering that, obviously, he created the character on screen, but he’s Mark Hamill, he’s not literally Luke Skywalker. Luke Skywalker lives as a creation on that screen. He’s a myth. And as such, he only really lives in the minds of people who listen to and in various ways believe that myth. And I know that was me. So, it’s complicated. But I mean, the short answer to your question is, it was f—–g terrifying.”
I have zero intentions of getting into a debate, again, about The Last Jedi. I’m not a fan of the movie, however my opinions was largely unaffected by Luke’s story. Instead my only criticism was that I felt I needed to have more flashbacks to understand’s Luke’s state of mind at this point. However I had many other non related criticisms which I won’t get into here.
I’ll say this though, at least The Last Jedi wasn’t as bad as The Rise of Skywalker.
Let us know what you think of his comments as Rian Johnson discusses arguments with Mark Hamill about Luke Skywalker in The Last Jedi? Feel free to comment below as always.