Mark Hamill Made Up His Own Reason for Luke Skywalker’s Exile (& It’s Way Too Dark for Star Wars)

Mark Hamill Made Up His Own Reason for Luke Skywalker's Exile (& It's Way Too Dark for Star Wars)

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Content Warning: This article contains references to child endangerment and suicide. Reader caution is advised.

Eight years after its release, Star Wars: Episode VIII — The Last Jedi remains the most controversial installment of the Sequel Trilogy—and the Skywalker Saga in general. Directed by Rian Johnson, The Last Jedi divided the Star Wars fanbase on more than one front, leaving viewers to debate its storyline, characterizations of iconic characters, and the effect it had on the trilogy as a whole. Ironically, the film also has the highest critical approval of the Sequel Trilogy, only adding to the chaos surrounding any discourse about Episode VIII.

Luke Skywalker actor Mark Hamill himself has been very vocal about his opinions on The Last Jedi over the years, particularly criticizing his character’s depiction therein. Hamill has often made it clear that he disagrees with the story beats that Johnson came up with for Luke in the film, particularly his decision to go into exile after Ben Solo’s betrayal. In a recent interview, the actor revealed that he came up with his own secret backstory for Luke’s self-imposed exile—and it’s way darker than anything Star Wars has done in years.

Mark Hamill Has a Dark Theory About Luke Skywalker's Exile in The Last Jedi

Disney Would Never Have Approved This Dark Backstory

Mark Hamill Made Up His Own Reason for Luke Skywalker's Exile (& It's Way Too Dark for Star Wars)

In contrast to what the script might say in The Last Jedi, Mark Hamill has his own ideas about what made Luke Skywalker go into self-imposed exile. By the time audiences reconnect with Luke at the end of The Force Awakens, the Jedi has been living alone on the isolated planet of Ahch-To for several years, having shut himself off from the Force. Episode VIII explains that Luke went into exile after his nephew, Ben Solo, betrayed the new Jedi Order, killed the rest of his students, and gave himself over to the Dark Side. This was a controversial plot point among fans, one which the actor himself disagreed with as well. Hamill believes that this turn of events would only make Luke double down in his resolve to rebuild the Jedi Order, not give up. With Rian Johnson’s permission, Hamill concocted his own, far darker backstory to explain Luke’s exile, which he revealed in a recent interview:

I thought, ‘What could make someone give up a devotion to what is basically a religious entity, to give up being a Jedi?’ Well, the love of a woman. So he falls in love with a woman. He gives up being a Jedi. They have a child together. At some point, the child, as a toddler, picks up an unattended lightsaber, pushes the button, and is killed instantly. The wife is so full of grief, she kills herself. I thought that would be… because I hear these horrible stories about these children who find unattended guns and wind up dead. That resonated with me so deeply.

While this backstory informed Hamill’s performance, it isn’t considered canon to Johnson’s script or the larger Skywalker Saga. Nevertheless, this adds a new context to Luke Skywalker’s story in The Last Jedi, offering an alternative explanation for his self-imposed exile. It should also be noted that Hamill was careful to deny any feud between himself and Johnson, despite the rumors that have swirled among the Star Wars fanbase for years. Nevertheless, the real talking point in Hamill’s story isn’t its differences from The Last Jedi, but just how dark it is.

Hamill's Backstory Is Way Too Dark for Star Wars (But Makes More Sense)

Luke Needed a Bigger Reason to Go Into Exile

Mark Hamill Made Up His Own Reason for Luke Skywalker's Exile (& It's Way Too Dark for Star Wars)

This backstory is extremely dark and perhaps too upsetting for a Star Wars film. Nothing this dark has been put to screen in Star Wars since Anakin Skywalker’s brutal murder of the Jedi younglings in Revenge of the Sith. However, as dark as it is, Hamill’s backstory accomplishes its goal: it is the one thing painful enough to overcome the hopefulness so essential to Luke Skywalker’s character. The problem that so many fans had with Luke’s story in The Last Jedi isn’t so much what happened that made him give up, but rather the fact that Luke was supposed to be someone resilient enough to persevere despite his failures. To conquer this eternal light inside Luke, something equally dark would have to conquer him. Just like his father before him, the love of his wife and children would be enough to turn Luke away from the Jedi.

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Hamill’s comments should be enough to excite fans of the Star Wars Expanded Universe, now collectively known as Legends. In these now non-canonical stories, Luke Skywalker has a wife named Mara Jade, who was once the Emperor’s Hand before turning to the Light Side. Luke and Mara also had a son, Ben Skywalker, who followed in his father’s footsteps to become a Jedi. Unfortunately, these characters were erased from canon when Disney bought Star Wars. Hamill’s backstory could have brought them back into canon, even if they would have been killed off much sooner than in the Expanded Universe. Nevertheless, there is always a chance that Mara Jade and Ben Skywalker, or at least characters equivalent to them, could appear in future Star Wars projects, which could perhaps adapt parts of Hamill’s dark ideas to better explain Luke’s decision to go into exile.

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