In Star Wars: The Last Jedi [SPOILER ALERT], Luke Skywalker has shut himself off from the Force and has no interest in helping the Resistance due to his lack of faith in the ways of the Jedi. That's a story decision which has proved to be problematic for some fans who were hoping to see a very different take on the hero but it may still surprise you to learn that Mark Hamill feels the same way!
Hamill clearly wanted to see what George Lucas would have done with Luke and feels that his version would have been much closer to what we got in the original trilogy rather than this new take.
"I said to Rian, ‘Jedi’s don’t give up.’ I mean, even if he had a problem, he would maybe take a year to try and regroup. But if he made a mistake, he would try and right that wrong. So, right there we had a fundamental difference, but it’s not my story anymore. It’s somebody else’s story – and Rian needed me to be a certain way to make the ending effective. …That’s the crux of my problem. Luke would never say that. I’m sorry. Well, in this version, see I’m talking about the George Lucas Star Wars. This is the next generation of Star Wars, so I almost had to think of Luke as another character. Maybe he’s Jake Skywalker. He’s not my Luke Skywalker, but I had to do what Rian wanted me to do because it serves the story well."
While these comments may give some angry Star Wars fans ammunition to use against Johnson and the current direction the franchise is heading it, it's important to note that Hamill is an actor and not a storyteller. Lucas' take on this new trilogy probably would have been vastly more controversial than what Abrams and Johnson have delivered given the reception to the prequels he wrote and directed.
"But listen," the actor adds. "I still haven’t accepted it completely. But it’s only a movie. I hope people like it. I hope they don’t get upset, and I came to really believe that Rian was the exact man that they need for this job." That, at least, is high praise indeed and it's easy to understand why Hamill would have wanted to see Luke head in a different direction. What do you think of these remarks?