Mark Hamill is at it again, taking another jab at how his character Luke Skywalker met his end in Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi. You know the one: the middle chapter of that polarizing sequel trilogy where Luke got the most screen time he’d see across all three films. By then, he’d become this jaded hermit who’d lost faith in the whole Jedi thing, though he does spend some time training Rey before she jets off to try saving Kylo Ren from succumbing to the Dark Side.
The climax of Luke’s story comes when he pulls off this incredible feat: projecting his image across the entire galaxy to distract Kylo Ren and the First Order long enough for the last few Resistance fighters to slip away. It’s meant to be this huge heroic sacrifice, except Luke dies afterward because apparently using the Force on that massive a scale just takes too much out of you.
During a recent chat on CBS Mornings, Hamill basically poked fun at the whole thing. He finds it amusing that people overlook “the irony that Luke died from an overdose of the Force.
“The way he sees it, nobody had ever warned him about the dangers. After all, The Last Jedi introduced Force abilities we’d never seen before, which led Hamill to wonder out loud: “I mean, who knew that was even a thing?”
He went on to imagine how absurd it would’ve been if his old mentors had given him a heads up. “Don’t you think if there was even a marginal chance that using the Force could be lethal, Obi-Wan would’ve said, ‘Use the Force in moderation, Luke?’ Or Yoda would’ve said, ‘Overdo Force projection, you must not?’ Nobody warned me!” Still, he acknowledges that the powers that be decided this was how Luke’s story needed to end. “Obviously, they concluded his story, he died,” he said, though he did add that it was “a nice exit” and figures he won’t be coming back to the franchise.
Well, he did pop up briefly as a Force ghost in The Rise of Skywalker, but since then Hamill’s moved on to other projects. He’s been lending his voice to things like The Wild Robot, Invincible, and Lego Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy, plus appearing in The Life of Chuck, The Sandman, and The Long Walk. Even so, he’s forever linked to that original trilogy alongside Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher. The three of them are basically cemented in pop culture history.
The sequel trilogy with Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, and Oscar Isaac got a pretty mixed reception, and it’s not hard to see why. The story felt like it was being pulled in different directions as it bounced between directors Rian Johnson and J.J. Abrams, creating this messy tug of war over what the narrative should actually be.
Now, years removed from The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker, Star Wars is gearing up for a return to theaters next year with The Mandalorian and Grogu. The beloved series Andor is also wrapping up. It looks like the franchise is finally ready to move past the Skywalker Saga and all those story choices that Hamill’s been side-eyeing for years.
