Mark Hamill Created His Own Backstory For Luke Skywalker

Via Ew.com:

It has to be emphasized right at the start: this is not part of the official Star Wars narrative. But it’s something fans can think about in the back of their minds as they watch Mark Hamill’s return as Luke Skywalker.

Basically, it’s what was in the back of his mind.

Hamill has revealed some of the history he created himself to get into the mindset of an older, broken, and weary Luke Skywalker in The Last Jedi.

Since it’s not canon, there’s no need for a spoiler warning. Instead, here’s a heartbreak warning: the actor devised an absolutely wrenching experience for one particular chapter in the character’s life after the events of Return of the Jedi.

“Actors like backstories. They want to know motivation and all those things, and it’s such a blank slate,” says Hamill, who has become so entwined with the character over four decades that he sometimes references himself and Luke interchangeably. “You know, if you look at it intellectually, I realized that it’s not my story anymore and so what [Luke] did or did not do in the intervening years aren’t really important to the audience at this point, but I have to work it out for myself.”

Hamill is probably wrong about that. Luke’s history is extremely important to Star Warsfans. But most of the books and comics about Luke that were written as part of the Expanded Universe are now decanonized and classified by Lucasfilm as “Legends.”

That’s why the actor felt he had leeway to imagine his own version of what happened to Luke during that in-between time.

“I wrote lots and lots of scenarios,” Hamill says. “I made notes that he fell in love with a woman who was a widow and had this young child.”

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