If Rian Johnson is working to maintain some semblance of mystery around Supreme Leader Snoke – word is The Last Jedi will answer most (but not all!) of our questions come December – then the sequel’s writer-director has adopted a similar approach to the great Luke Skywalker.
Mark Hamill’s all-powerful Force-user went into exile soon after the events of Jedi, and it was only when Daisy Ridley’s Rey touched down on Ahch-To that Star Wars fans caught a glimpse of Hamill’s jaded hero. And though he was initially taken aback by Johnson’s vision for the character, The Last Jedi is poised to introduce a “haunted” Luke who is essentially a shell of his former self, which leaves Rey with little choice but to rekindle his connection with the Force.
It’s clear, then, that Luke’s going to have a huge role to play in the film and already we’ve been hearing that Hamill’s performance is so good that it may even earn him some awards nods. Whether that ends up happening or not remains to be seen, but here to add some more hype into the proceedings is co-star John Boyega, who revealed the following about Luke’s big return in a recent interview:
“Seeing him around is incredible. In seven [‘The Force Awakens’] there was only one moment for him and now it’s, you know, called ‘The Last Jedi’ and it has Luke Skywalker in it. It’s going to be crazy and his acting is incredible. Mark’s come back strong and Luke as a character is so solid in this. I can’t wait to see it. It’s going to be good.”
Hamill may have been largely absent from The Force Awakens, but make no mistake about it, The Last Jedi will bring him back to the fore in a big way – similar to the prominence enjoyed by Harrison Ford in the last film. Episode IX, meanwhile, would have, in turn, focused more clearly on Carrie Fisher – but those plans have obviously had to change, since she tragically passed away at the end of 2016.
So, with Mark Hamill as the last member of the original trio to remain involved in the Star Wars saga, where will the end of The Last Jedi find him? All will be revealed when the film arrives in theatres on December 15th.