Claims of Mark Hamill not liking Luke in TLJ

Mark Hamill - my hero, BTW - has said the following ...

1. That he thought it would be cool for Luke to turn to the Dark Side at the end of ROTJ.
2. That he thought he should have shown up in the third act of TFA to claim Anakin's Lightsaber.
3. That he thought the scene at the end of TFA was not going to work.
4. That he had the time of his life shooting TLJ.
5. That Rian Johnson is one of his favorite directors and "if Rian's happy, I'm happy."
6. That he told Johnson he disagreed with everything he'd decided about Luke after reading the script for TLJ.
7. That, on a scale of 1 to 10 his excitement for TLJ is an 11.

So make of it what you will but... Mark's remarks are all over the map, but he's not necessarily being inconsistent: he was taken aback with the direction Rian is taking with Luke, but he trusts him as a storyteller and is excited to see the end result.

One interview that came to mind is relatively recent... I don't remember when it came out, but he was asked about working with Irving Kershner.
Kershner, who'd already passed away at that point, had said in a previous interview something along the lines of "I think I drove [Mark] crazy," and the interviewer asked Mark if he was exaggerating. And Mark said "oh no, he did."

And he talked about how they both had very strong opinions on set and that Mark would always lose the arguments (because, uh, he wasn't the director), and he'd say "fine, we'll do it your way, but I don't agree."

So... what happens is that Mark has an opinion on everything, but - to paraphrase his own remarks - him disagreeing with the director is not necessarily a bad thing.

 

i know many people consider TFA a rehash with no new ideas or risks, but for me, not having Luke in the film, completely changing our expectations of who he is as a person, and then instead have a new generation characters drive the plot instead is a huge risk, especially considering how generally picky we get as a fan base. i totally understand their decision, and even admire it. TFA has other problems, to be sure, but i think their use of Luke / Mark Hamill so far has been nothing but great. it leaves us excited for what comes next more than anything while still caring about our new characters.

also, mark, love him to death, but he's an actor, not a writer. as he's admitted, you don't see the full scope as just one person within a franchise like this.

 

I think Mark is speaking the truth. Back in the day when George Lucas created SW, he had an idea of what he wanted Luke to be. Luke was a symbol of hope in the galaxy far far away and his character had a pureness to him. The guy who never gave up no matter the odds, the guy who was willing to do anything for those whom he loved and would never abandon his friends, the guy who wanted to be a Jedi, the guy who saved the galaxy ect.

This was the Luke that George gave us yet he has slowly been transformed into the opposite. Now Luke is the washed up guy who quit and abandoned his family and friends and who didn't seem to care for the fate of the galaxy he fought so hard to save. A Luke that didn't even care about leaving his sister behind in a time of such need. While ROTJ gave us a Luke that was the ray of hope for the Jedi Order, TFA tossed all of that to the garbage just to do it's own thing and give us new characters and Disney's new view of things. Now, with TLJ around the corner, it seems that Luke's character will be messed up even more and taken further away from the Luke that Lucas created. This is what I think is starting to bother Mark and you can see in this video that right from the start there have been choices with his character that he has not liked.

 

Oh, GROSS.


This video is pure, unadulterated cancer.

It takes his comments out of context and edits away the part where he qualifies his statements. What absolute bullshite.

Misdirection? What's that?

 

Who JJ he must have is producer

 

I didn't understand.

 

love this post.. love it.

i'm not sure if 'unadulterated cancer' is even a term (you kids today, i can't keep up).. but the raw pissed off emotion is clear to see.

we were almost in the room with you when you posted that... which isn't an easy thing to do on a forum. great post.

 

Here is an actual news interview where Mark Hamill actually speaks about Luke:

 

Thanks, guy. I'm glad my anger has found a home in you as well.


I'd like to address this idea that Luke has somehow become a huge disappointment of a character.

Did y'all somehow forget Obi Wan? If the PT had come before the OT, I doubt anyone would have been happy with the direction Obi Wan's character had taken. Cool Obi Wan with his super flips becoming a sad old tramp? C'mon.

This is the second movie of the trilogy and the first time Luke has been introduced. He's not going to start off on a high note. He's not Yoda. He's a human character with human foibles. His arc is just as important as any of the other characters'.
Besides, we don't even know WHY he's gone off and hidden himself away. There has to be a good reason. A reason that only the story group knows. Keep in mind that Mark Hamill likely only has seen his portion of the Last Jedi and nothing beyond that. I would take his opinion with a grain of salt.

Also, he's only been gone some 6 years. That's nothing. That's like two years longer than your average college student spends drinking her worries away. Let him have this, you guys.

After all, whinging is an important part of the Skywalker bloodline.

 

This Jar Jar Abrams guy used to be on these forums. In the lead-up to TFA, he was banned for constantly complaining about Luke's '3 second cameo'. Seriously, it was a valid complaint, but he posted and re-posted on almost every thread with this complaint - regardless of whether it was relevant to the thread's topic or not - until the mods finally banned him. I wouldn't trust anything he says, nor do I trust his tendentious editing of clips.

 

I'm in a facebook group that's full of bitter PT and EU fans and this sort of thing is rife there. It's 4chan level bantha poodoo.

 

Ah JarJarAbrams..
Perhaps the icon of desperation..

Fun little fact, Patrick Stewart had power over the Star Trek 9 script. Pillar wrote about it in his revenge from the grave. Stewart hated the original 'stardust' pitch. He cited the Romulans as 'weak' villians. But he loved the idea of Picard feeling young again. Subsequent drafts were all based on Stewart's opinions. The end result.. was the beginning of the end.

Ironically about 10 years later JJ was dragged in to find a pulse. He found it in a group of Romulan miners.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0796366/ratings

 

Sounds good. Subverting some audience expectation and furthering beloved character arc's are right up there on my ST wish list.

 

Great post, but...I just love how there's a whole 2 minutes of whiny Luke footage in A New Hope! xD

 

Well Mark Hamil is the voice of the Joker! lol

 

Luke character assassinate to prop up Rey....nah shocking. He can join the club.