Over the years, fans have enjoyed finding and soaking up deleted and missing scenes, oftentimes understanding why they were snipped but occasionally rueing their deletion. Mark Hamill clearly feels the same, and during the recent Pizza Film School episode looking at The Empire Strikes Back, Hamill discussed one such – now iconic – scene that was trimmed from A New Hope.
“There are a couple of things that are good for the character. No. 1, he is ridiculed roundly by his peers. So he’s not particularly cool or popular. Koo Stark is the only other female actor in the movie … and she calls me ‘Wormie.’ So I am not popular, and then I bump into Biggs Darklighter, played by Garrick Hagon, and I go ‘Wow!’ You can see we’re good friends. He’s dressed in an Imperial uniform and I’m going, ‘Wow! That’s so great! I can’t wait until I can get off the dump of a planet and join with you.’ And he takes me outside and says, ‘Luke, as soon as I get the chance, I am going to jump ship and join the Rebels.’ The only reason that is interesting to me is that Luke has no political persuasion. He thinks it’s great he is in the Empire! Luke wants to be in the Empire if it will get him off the farm! So he is completely pure in that he is not politically motivated in any way, shape or form.”
Remember that the next time you watch Luke gaze at the twin suns of Tatooine – he was dreaming of becoming a TIE Fighter pilot and joining the Empire.
