Mark Hamill 'regrets' airing his The Last Jedi concerns in public
Mark Hamill once proclaimed, “He’s not my Luke Skywalker,” referring to how his iconic Star Wars character was depicted in The Last Jedi. But amid criticism from fans — including a petition to have Episode VIII removed from canon — the actor now regrets making those concerns public.
“I regret voicing my doubts & insecurities in public. Creative differences are a common element of any project but usually remain private,” Hamill tweeted on Tuesday. “All I wanted was to make [a] good movie. I got more than that — [writer-director Rian Johnson] made an all-time GREAT one! #HumbledHamill.”
Hamill commented in response to quotes he gave to IMDb. “I’ve had trouble accepting what [Johnson] saw for Luke but again, I mean, I have to say, having seen the movie I was wrong,” he said. “I think being pushed out of your comfort zone is a good thing because if I was just another benevolent Jedi training young padawans, we’ve seen it.”
But that wasn’t all. Hamill also told Vanity Fair that, after reading the script for The Last Jedi, he told Johnson, “I pretty much fundamentally disagree with every choice you’ve made for this character. Now, having said that, I have gotten it off my chest, and my job now is to take what you’ve created and do my best to realize your vision.”
To Spanish-language outlet SensaCine, he explained further, “I said to Rian, I said ‘Jedis don’t give up.’ I mean, even if he had a problem, he would maybe take a year to try and regroup, but if he made a mistake he would try and right that wrong, so right there, we had a fundamental difference, but, it’s not my story anymore. It’s somebody else’s story, and Rian needed me to be a certain way to make the ending effective.”
Star Wars: The Last Jedi saw Hamill’s Skywalker on the island of Ahch-To, where Rey (Daisy Ridley) came to learn the Jedi arts.
The reason the veteran Jedi knight is hunkering down on this remote location instead of fighting The First Order is, as Hamill previously told EW, “[Luke] made a huge mistake in thinking that his nephew [Adam Driver’s Kylo Ren] was the chosen one, so he invested everything he had in Kylo, much like Obi-Wan did with my character. And he is betrayed, with tragic consequences. Luke feels responsible for that.”
Despite concerns and a 52 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes (which may be the workings of an alt-right group), The Last Jedi has still made close to $800 million at the worldwide box office after its second weekend in theaters.
For what it’s worth, Lucasfilm seems pleased with Johnson’s work — enough to give him the reins to a brand-new Star Wars trilogy outside of the Skywalker Saga.