Mark Hamill Wanted Luke To Survive Until ‘Star Wars: Episode IX’

Via Heroichollywood.com:

In The Director and the Jedi, a feature-length documentary included as one of the special features for Star Wars: The Last Jedi, features an in-depth look at the production of the film. In the movie, Mark Hamill discusses his controversial creative disagreement with director Rian Johnson, his regret for making his concerns public, and why he found peace and purpose with one of his final scenes in the movie.

Hamill previously stated that he fundamentally disagreed with Johnson in discussing the direction Luke Skywalker took as a character, but he’s since clarified that, after watching the finished movie, he believes it was the right direction to take the character even if it’s not what he initially wanted. (Hamill notes that he regrets making his anxiety public, especially as he hadn’t seen the finished movie at the time.) At the time of pre-production, Hamill had some harsh words about Johnson’s take on the character, but was confident enough in his vision to carry it through:

“Here I am going home again. but it was a house I didn’t recognize at all. It’s not distaste at all. It just wasn’t a Luke I understood. You have your own interpretation of how the character should be utilized. My character represented hope…now, he’s sort of demoralized. [I said to Rian Johnson], ‘I hate what you’ve done with my character.’ After I got that off my chest, it was like, ‘Lead me, o guru…’ I’m like a lot of you. I feel an investment in it, a certain sense of ownership. I’m sorry I lowered my bar and expressed my misgivings about it, because that belongs in the process, it doesn’t belong to the public. I made that statement before I saw the finished film.”

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