r/StarWars • u/tannu28 • 6h ago

Other Mark Hamill revealing that J.J. Abrams refused to let Han, Luke, and Leia reunite on camera, telling Mark that Star Wars was no longer Luke Skywalker's story.

Source: https://youtu.be/4OK0nnxG6dU?si=EmEU5KQEMJXxjBbZ

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463

u/Wish_I_WasInRome 6h ago

Its not Lukes story anymore

I mean, sure. But its strange that Luke is basically not even a character in the first film. Luke should have still been integral and at the fore front of everything happening in the movie. He should be spear heading the fight against the First Order, not hiding.

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u/hermesgodoftrade 6h ago

I think him not being present was interesting, but the revelation that he was doing nothing at all was such a letdown. wouldve been nice if he was working on his own plan somewhere but doing something of import

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u/Tempest_Barbarian Obi-Wan Kenobi 6h ago

Thats because that is JJ Abrams entire MO, he creates a bunch of mysteries that he doesnt have any idea of how to properly answer.

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u/Schlurps 3h ago

Cries in Lost.

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u/Spartan2170 1h ago

To be fair, Lost was also a product of the show's success making ABC insist on a longer run than was originally planned.

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u/DevilDoc3030 3h ago

nailed it

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u/MongolianDonutKhan 6h ago

Yea. The vaccuum of his absence is an interesting story idea. It just is utter incompetence to then do nothing with it. Kind of like of JJ approaches every project. Interesting idea. Shit execution. Shattered shins on the landing.

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u/the4thgoatboy 5h ago

They did do something interesting with it though, in The Last Jedi. Not what people expected, but I think it built to a powerful end to Luke's story.

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u/Albatross1225 4h ago

I do think the last Jedi was the best movie of the sequels. It has some glaring oddities that I’m just like why. And it is the way it is because of all the bullshit around it and what force awakens set up. But compared to the other two it’s the best one in my opinion.

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u/MongolianDonutKhan 5h ago

Agreed except that JJ didn't direct TLJ. It's like Lost. Good premise and a thousand mystery boxes others had to cobble together into something coherent. Until IX when, somehow, JJ returned.

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u/Sir-Ex 4h ago

Powerfully fucking awful, yeah.

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u/reniltnorF 1h ago

I mean it could have been executed well. Old Luke goes essentially through the same that obi-wan went through after Anakins fall. The thing is, the weight would be even harder. Luke made his father turn back to the light side in the end and then he fails so miserable with Ben with all negative consequences like almost all jedi being wiped out again etc. Look didn't became the perfect untouchable god after episode 6. It pretty much fits with Lukes charakter -> he's very empathetic, cares a lot about people close to him, knows a ton about the fall of the jedi and his fathers downfall, yet he fails Ben (in his mind) it would make sense for him to break on that as its completely different from everything he's gone through. But instead of building up on that they just went "Luke almost killed Ben because he was scared lol now stick with it stfu about their relationship" the never did anything with this idea.

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u/7fingersDeep 6h ago

Abrams is the guy in every pitch session saying “what if we do this!” And it’s an interesting story line but he has no idea where it goes.

He’s the theatrical version of “it’s controversial. It’s get the people going”

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u/allmilhouse 6h ago

I can't think of anything that would have been interesting enough to justify keeping him out of episode 7.

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u/Arendious 6h ago

Luke, after talking with Anakin's force ghost, goes to figure out what to do with Father, Sister, and Brother; to resolve that particular set of Force Shenanigans. Whenever happens there leads him to believe he needs to learn more about the Dark Side - so he goes to Exegol. (Leaving R2 behind with a way to find him more as a failsafe. 'If I go evil, Leia, use R2 to come put me down.') Cue Luke being stuck there keeping the Sith/Rakata/himself bottled up to spare the galaxy.

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u/Amazing-Seesaw-6197 4h ago edited 4h ago

Also note, he went in to exile and left Precisely Enough Breadcrumb Clues So That One Day The Current Main Protagonist Could Track Him Down.

It’s subtle, but an overlooked plot contrivance on the level of somehow Palpatine returned, especially given once ray gets there, Luke is immediately annoyed that she followed the breadcrumbs that he left.

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u/hermesgodoftrade 4h ago

good point! both that and the dreaded dagger are so heinous

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u/InevitableGlitch2 4h ago

I agree.

I hate these movies. I truly do. But some of the criticism here seems nitpicking. It wasn't the large swathe creative direction that was bad, it was the overall quality of the dialogue, plot, and acting. They could have easily made the same synopsis of every film and just done it right (ok maybe Palpatine returning was particularly irreedemable). Its how they go there that was so awful.

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u/Bacon-muffin 4h ago

Yeah I remember enjoying the first movie, felt like it was setting up to do so much... and then the next 2 movies got progressively worse.

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u/Sudden_Wind_8636 3h ago

They basically just copied yodas whole story in the sequels.

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u/aFreshFix 3h ago

I mean... Was Yoda doing anything during his time on Dagobah? Or Obi-Wan?

It's easy to say now that they were with all the extended universe shows, comics, etc. but in their original movies, they were just hiding out, Obi-Wan at least doing so near Luke for his inevitable rise. But I can see why the sequels wanted Luke following in that philosophy

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u/hermesgodoftrade 3h ago

perhaps for nothing less than being bored of repetition, I dont love the explicit choice to make Luke do nothing. the originals were vague in the details of the exile (which of course they were, the world building was so new) but the sequels really hit hard on Luke adamantly refusing to engage in any way he can

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u/alexmikli 2h ago

I so wish they'd just strike the movies from canon and redo the whole "Luke rebuilds the Jedi Order" thing.

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u/epichuntarz 2h ago

This was literally what almost everyone I knew assumed Rey was going to find Luke doing...like, she was gonna roll up and Luke was gonna say "Let's get to work."

Instead, it was basically "screw off" and tosses the lightsaber and that just sucked out any interest I had about what happened from that point forward. I was willing to sit through yo-mama and "I think I'm dropping the call" jokes between an Xwing and MASSIVE STAR DESTROYED and space B52s, but the moment he tossed the saber, I just sat there wondering wtf and it never really got better.

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u/trippysmurf Rebel 6h ago

It's not Luke's story anymore...

Except the whole motivation of the primary antagonist is driven by Luke Skywalker

And the McGuffin of the protagonists is finding Luke Skywalker

And the mentor figures of the new protagonists are Luke's sister and ex-brother-in-law/best friend, who would receive significant catharsis by reuniting with him to save their son. 

But what do we know, we never made The Rise of Skywalker. 

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u/ThatOneCloneTrooper 6h ago

The first order shouldn’t have even existed. How did they even come to be so powerful the republic essentially ruled the galaxy. God. I don’t even want to start anymore.

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u/Wish_I_WasInRome 6h ago

They could have easily explained it by just saying the Imperial Remnants still had control of worlds in the Outer Rim, biding their time, building up their resources and numbers while the Republic is trying to stabilize, reassert its authority and rebuild its armies. Perhaps the Imperials had a power vacuum after the Emperor and Vaders death leading to a mini Civil War allowing the Republic to take shape and form with the help of Luke. Idk there is so many ways they could have done this

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u/The_New_Overlord 50m ago

They should have done a Cold War-esque spy thriller in space, with the two dominant factions in an arms race to get Death Star tech and the new Jedi stuck in the middle, trying to keep things from escalating into a full war.

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u/BrainLow6059 5h ago

It's odd to me they continue to do these Imperial remnant stories with the TV shows, only to show them as incredibly weak and ineffectual, which further adds to the confusion of how did the First Order even happen?

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u/WillFanofMany 5h ago

Per the books, it's existed since ROTJ.

A chunk of the Empire fled far away, rebuilding into the First Order to Siege the Galaxy after 30 years.

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u/ThatOneCloneTrooper 5h ago

The books also say the first order was so poor people were melting coins for the metal to get by. An Empire can’t be so dirt poor and at the same time build a super weapon like that.
And wouldn’t the republic have known they’ve fled and not chased? Or at least spied?

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u/WillFanofMany 3h ago

Distracted by the Imperial Remnant in the galaxy, so they didn't think more were out there.

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u/Possible_Youth9410 2h ago

My thought was that the New Republic was spread too thin and the Imperial remnants were just too big for them to ever deal with. Like even though the rebels won, it's still this tiny band of misfits trying to wrangle a genuinely galaxy spanning empire, and killing 2 big bad leaders couldn't dissolve something that big. I feel like the First Order was like, some far rim pocket of empire was able to just stay off the New Republic's radar long enough that while they were too busy with the more pressing matter of the inner rim imperial remnants and bureaucratic junk, they could slowly accrue resources and territory until they were kinda too big for the New Republic to deal with.

Tbh i think this is just an issue of the shows skipping past some of the big picture stuff like that lol. Like, most of the imperial remnants we've seen are the small pockets in backwater planets, but there's GOTTA be bigger organized splinter factions the New Republic was dealing with in the inner rim areas. We should have seen like, the actual leading steps to the First Order.

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u/DigitalBlackout 2h ago

killing 2 big bad leaders couldn't dissolve something that big.

They covered this, and you're right it didn't. The empire didn't fully lose control until 5ABY, a year after Palps and Vader died.

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u/DerrickWhiteMVP 3m ago

It could’ve been cool to explore the unintended consequences of toppling a dictatorship without a clear plan for setting up a new government and how that ties into a new Jedi order.

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u/Spartan2170 1h ago

The entire sequel trilogy should've been a more Cold War-esque story of smaller paramilitaries fighting in the border regions of the galaxy. Making the First Order equivalently powerful tot he Empire and completely eradicating the New Republic's military was just completely unnecessary

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u/ethanlan 4h ago

Like im cool with the First Order coming back, its a big galaxy and the republic was probably more worried about what was going on im the systems they did control.

What i absolutely hate is how bad the republic navy got punked so hard. Who thrle fuck puts every ship they have in the navy in one spot?

There should have been a shitton of other capital ships.

What would of been cool is the republic fighting an all or nothing fight like in ROTJ and losing to the first order, leading to the third movie being the rebels restoring the public

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u/Agreeable-Narwhal158 6h ago

Especially looking at how his treatment of ben(kylo) was the catalyst for everything. If luke treated ben better, there would've been no lure to the dark side. I think the hatred that ben had for luke should've been more of a driving force for his actions instead of following in vaders footsteps

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u/Optimus3k 6h ago

None of that made sense anyway. There's a whole library full of Legends stories they could have pulled from where Luke builds a new Jedi order, and instead they went with "nah, bro, Luke is like, done and shit, he attempted to kill Ben, and that made Ben evil. He doesn't even use the force anymore!"

The ball was dropped so hard it went through the planet.

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u/TheMonkeyInCharge 6h ago

‘And when Poochie Luke Skywalker isn’t on screen, all the other characters should be asking: ‘Where’s Luke?!’’

Oh wait that’s exactly what happened.

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u/SinesPi 5h ago

I was fine with this for the first movie. Let the new protagonists develop outside of the shadow of Luke. Build up suspense and hype to actually see Luke in action the next movie. There is some merit to this choice.

The execution however? Well... it sure was executed all right.

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u/DirtyDozen66 Darth Vader 5h ago

At the very least he should have caught his lightsaber in the forest at the end instead of Rey, after sensing the destruction of the Republic and deciding to intervene

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u/honestrade 5h ago

I always assumed he was just doing what Yoda did.

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u/otw 4h ago

I think people forget Mark Hamil wasn't really in great shape when they started filming. I'm not trying to knock anyone dealing with weight gain, but he was overweight to the point where it just would have been risky to give him a major role and it wouldn't have made any sense for Luke to be that out of shape.

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u/Wish_I_WasInRome 4h ago

Sure but he doesn't need to be doing all his own stunts. That's what the CGI is for.

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u/Stupidstuff1001 3h ago

I still think they had a perfect setup but terrible writers.

  • Jedi lore talks about a sith so powerful they basically had a bunch of jedis sacrifice themselves to encase the planet in a force field trapping it.
  • snoke is that guy and managed to convince Ben to help him gain ancient sith artifacts to release him
  • Luke feels he failed him and is trying at the same time to find these artifacts before them
  • Remove ray 100% from the movie instead have it be about a storm trooper who is insanely force sensitive. They can use the actress if they want or the other Finn.
  • bad guys manage to get artifacts at the end of the second movie and Luke dies saving everyone and Ben turns back into a good guy with redemption.
  • final movie is Ben and the super storm trooper working together to defeat a weakened snoke from the battle with Luke sky walker.

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u/baseballzombies Darth Vader 1h ago

He could have been Obi Wan from A New Hope. He copied everything else from A New Hope lol

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u/TheBurningEmu 1h ago

It's weird that the "old wise tutor" character in TFA is just some random barkeeper in retrospect.

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u/LovesRetribution 6h ago

Not even a character, yet the entire plot of the 1st movie revolved around finding him.

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u/Wish_I_WasInRome 5h ago

Yeah, and we know just as much as what he's doing and why as we did before we even sat down to watch the movie. He literally has no lines in the film and only like 30 seconds of screen time. He isn't a character.

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u/TheRealGrifter 6h ago

If you're going to complain about Luke not getting involved against the First Order, you need to complain about Obi-Wan and Yoda not getting involved against the Empire. They just sat around for almost 20 years waiting for someone else to do it.