Discussing season two of Knightfall with Den of Geek and a selection of other media sites, Mark Hamill discussed his new TV venture on History and then on to the GFFA as he gave his thoughts on the new films and his feelings on how the older characters were handled.
First off he touched on the release patterns of the new Disney / Lucasfilm movies.
‘In our day, it was three years apart. Now they’re two years apart, with an independent movie (Rogue One, Solo) in between. I say to the executives at Disney, “Really? Han Solo five months after our movie? Give it a rest!” They say, well, we have to keep the schedule clear for Mary Poppins. But I can be mouthy, because you know, what are they gonna do, fire me?’
Hamill also touched on the fate of Han Solo in The Force Awakens and his regret at how a decades-long awaited reunion never appeared onscreen.
‘I just thought, Luke’s never going to see his best friend again. You look at it in a self-centred way. I said that it was a big mistake that those three people would never reunite in any way. I guess I was wrong, because nobody seems to care!
I have to stipulate that I care, but it didn’t really seem to affect the larger audience. Luke, Han and Leia will never be together again, and I’ll probably never get to work with Harrison again.
He also spoke about the death of Luke Skywalker in The Last Jedi. It was decision Mark wasn’t against, but hoped would come a film later in the trilogy.
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 of VII is really the beginning of VIII. I got one movie! They totally hornswoggled (tricked) me.’
Hamill is a world-renowned talker, and if anyone is entitled to have an opinion on a character and series that he has been closely associated with for over forty years, then it’s him. That said, he is well aware how easily his words can be misread.
“The thing is, Luke changed so much between the first trilogy and the last trilogy. I got myself into trouble. I made a vow – I said that I’m not going to talk about the movies anymore, because I think it’s important for the audience to see them.
“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 cherry-pick. You know, I’ll be reading something, and say, ‘What moron said this?’, and then realise, ‘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?”
Mark Hamill and Luke Skywalker will return in Episode IX – in one form or another, be it flashback, Force ghost, astral projection or in the flesh – on 19th December 2019.
