Mark Hamill regrets criticizing ‘The Last Jedi’ publicly, praises Rian Johnson

Mark Hamill shares his real feelings on Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi Director Rian Johnson.

Since his resumption of his role as Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars Trilogy in a row which took place from 2015 to 2019, Hamill did not hesitate to express his frank feelings on the franchise. The actor jumped at the opportunity to set the record straight when he was asked to fight against his previous criticisms of the film Johnson Helmed during a visit to Jesse Thorn’s Bullseye podcast.

“I would love to clarify this: Rian Johnson is one of the most gifted directors I have ever worked with,” started Hamill. “He is kind, he is fun on the set, he is intelligent, he made a big film. I think that the confrontation between Kylo Ren – Adam Driver – and I at the end is so well staged. I love Knives And Brick. This is one of my favorite directors. “”

But, as Star Wars Fans are well aware, Hamill has already challenged the way Johnson has reintroduced Luke Skywalker to the franchise. In The last JediThe Jedi master once pure and with a pure and idealistic heart has returned like a hardened recluse, living in self-imposed exile after his nephew Ben Solo turned to the dark side, becoming Kylo Ren.

The day after the film’s release, Hamill expressed misfortune with the dark direction of Luke’s character, proclaiming at one point: “It’s not my Luke Skywalker.” But now, the actor clarifies that it was not the round of Luke’s dark heel that upset him – it was only the reason for Luke’s radical change.

“The fact that I made public with my dissatisfaction with the motivation so that Luke becomes a suicidal hermit could have colored things in a way that I should have kept this for me,” he said about the reception of the film. “But I kept saying to Rian:” It would make Luke Double even – “and he said:” Well, your class at the Jedi Academy was wiped out. “”

Hamill explained that he had a different idea of ​​how Luke would react to such a tragedy.

“I said:” Rian, I saw entirely destroyed planets! “”, He recalls. “‘If anything, Luke is doubled and hardens his resolution in the face of adversity.’ So that’s it.

With the direction of the Luke Arc already set, Hamill then proposed an alternative, presenting a different reason for his character to leave the Jedi behind.

“I invented a background a lot and much darker than I thought I could justify it to be in this way,” said Hamill. “I thought:” What could make someone give up a devotion to what is essentially a religious entity, to abandon being a Jedi? “Well, the love of a woman.”

Hamill previously shared his Backstory idea with Weekly entertainment In a 2017 interview, explaining that he “wrote a lot of scenarios” before landing on a version where Luke “fell in love with a woman who was a widow” and “left the Jedi” to help raise her child, until “the child has a hand on a laser saber and accidentally killed”.

It is only dark from there. Hamill told Thorn that the story ends with the woman “so full of sorrow” that she “is killing”.

He explained: “I hear these horrible stories about these children who find rifles unattended and find themselves dead. It resonated with me so deeply. [Rian] I did not have time to say a backdrop like that, I suppose. He just wanted a brief thing to explain it. And for me, that didn’t justify him. “”

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But that said, the disagreement on the story did not affect Hamill’s commitment to the character.

“I said [Rian]”Despite the fact that I do not agree with your choices for Luke, I will do everything in my power so that your scenario works as best as possible”, “Hamill remembers”. And the only unhappy thing about this is, I heard fans comments who think I don’t like Rian Johnson in a way, and nothing could be the truth. “”

As for Johnson, the Impassive face Creation supported its Star Wars Film, and in particular his polarizing point of view of Luke.

“When I was in the stick, I really swung the ball,” said the filmmaker Empire in 2022. “I think it is impossible for one of us to approach Star Wars Without thinking about it as a myth with which we were raised and how this myth, this story, cooked in us and affected us. The ultimate intention was not to undress – the intention was to go to the basic basic power of myth. And finally I hope that the film is an affirmation of the power of the myth of Star Wars in our lives. “”

Johnson was previously ready to develop his own trilogy of Star Wars Films, but the project was put on the backstore while Lucasfilm pivoted on television with titles such as Kenobi Obi-Wan,, AndorAnd The Mandalorian And Johnson began to develop several Knives Films for Netflix.

“It is just at this stage a question of schedule and when it can happen. It would break my heart if I had finished, if I could not return to this sandbox at some point,” said Johnson in 2022.