Mark Hamill Once Again Expresses Unhappiness With New ‘Star Wars’ Sequels
Another day, another interview in whichMark Hamillseems unhappy about the newStar Warssequels. Hamill isn’t one to sit back and keep his opinion to himself, and that’s refreshing in a way – many actors would do the opposite. But the implication is always clear: he wishes these new movies had turned out differently. It’s not that he thinks the movies arebad, per say – he just had something much different in mind before they were made. He’s certainly not alone there – just look at the fandom on Twitter or YouTube. Or better yet, don’t look. Hamill recently gave an interview about his new role on the showKnightfall, and sure enough, the subject ofStar Warscame up .
Whenever Mark Hamill does an interview about anything, the subject ofStar Warshas to come up. How could it not? And when that happens, Hamill tends to wax frustratingly about the new sequels –The Force Awakens,The Last Jediand the upcoming, still untitledEpisode IX. While speaking withDen of Geekabout his new role on the showKnightfall, Hamill opened up about his on-going journey as Luke Skywalker. First, he kicked things off by clearing the air, saying that while he has complaints, it doesn’t mean hehatesthe newStar Warsmovies.
“I got myself into trouble…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 realize, ‘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?'”
Still, it really bugs Hamill that the new trilogy didn’t feature a scene between himself,Harrison FordandCarrie Fisher. Ford’s Han Solo was killed off inThe Force Awakens, and Luke himself died inThe Last Jedi. Fisher’s Leia is still alive in the trilogy, and will be appearing inEpisode IXvia archival footage, but the actress herself died in 2016. Hamill also felt disappointed that Luke had nothing to do inThe Force Awakens, and then died inThe Last Jedi. While his character is returning in some capacity forEpisode IX, the actor can’t help but feel cheated.
“I just thought, Luke’s never going to see his best friend again,” Hamill said. “I said that it was a big mistake that those three people would never reunite in any way. 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 ofVIIis really the beginning ofVIII. I got one movie! They totally hornswoggled me.”
Hamill also singles out a specific scene fromThe Last Jedithat he insisted directorRian Johnsonchange. “They had me walking by 3PO, not even acknowledging him. I said: ‘I can’t do that! [Rian Johnson] said, ‘Okay, go over and do whatever.’ So I went over, and I did whatever.” There you have it: Hamill made sure there was #JusticeForC3PO.
I can see where Hamill is coming from here, but I’d also like to add that I think he gave the best performance of his entire career inThe Last Jedi, so you win some, you lose some.Star Wars: Episode IXopens onDecember 20, 2019.
