'Star Wars' News: Mark Hamill Reveals Own, Non-Canon Backstory for Luke Skywalker
By the time fans met Luke Skywalker again in "The Force Awakens," so much time will have passed in between, leading to the question: What was he doing all those years?
Fans may not get an answer to that question in "Star Wars: The Last Jedi," but Mark Hamill himself has crafted a backstory for his character that would justify his motivations and emotions. Be warned, though, the backstory is entirely part of Hamill's imagination and is in no way an official part of the plotline.
"Actors like backstories," Hamill told Entertainment Weekly. "They want to know motivation and all those things, and it's such a blank slate."
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Hamill revealed that he went through several different frameworks which helped him resonate with his character. Eventually, he came up with a truly traumatic backstory that involved love and loss.
"I wrote lots and lots of scenarios. I made notes that he fell in love with a woman who was a widow and had this young child," he explained. "He left the Jedi to raise this young child and marry this woman. And the child got hold of a lightsaber and accidentally killed himself."
The backstory is certainly a shocking one. While it may explain some things about Luke Skywalker, it is not "Star Wars" canon. However, Hamill did get seek advice from director Rian Johnson when he was making up that background.
Hamill has a much larger role in "The Last Jedi" than he did in "The Force Awakens," where he only appeared at the very end of the film and did not even have any dialogue. Another character from "The Force Awakens" with a more significant part in the sequel is Lt. Kaydel Ko Connix, played by Billie Lourd. Hamill previously stated that having Lourd in the "Star Wars" universe helps keep the legacy of Carrie Fisher alive.
"That's why it's so great that Billie Lourd is in the movie because we have that sort of continuity there," Hamill said of Fisher's daughter.
"Star Wars: The Last Jedi" will premiere on Dec. 15.
