Mark Hamill admits he's surprised at how divided the Star Wars fandom is nowadays. Playing Luke Skywalker, the actor starred alongside Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford, who portrayed Leia Organa and Han Solo in the original trilogy and returned for the sequel films starting in 2015's Star Wars: The Force Awakens. He's the only one among the three, however, who appeared in all recent saga installments.
While Luke was absent for the most part of The Force Awakens, his last minute appearance set up his arc in Rian Johnson's Star Wars: The Last Jedi where fans learned what happened to the powerful Jedi. The character also met his end in the 20187 film, sacrificing his life to save the Resistance. Just like some of the most prominent Jedi before him, Luke was ultimately able to return in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker to give troubled Rey (Daisy Ridley) a much-needed pep talk. Now that the Skywalker saga is done, Hamill looks back at the franchise that catapulted him to mainstream popularity, and he has some sad realizations.
Speaking with Daily Beast in light of his latest gig - a guest role in FX's What We Do In The Shadows TV show, Hamill candidly revealed his thoughts about the state of Star Wars fandom. As most, the actor also noticed how divided the community built by the space opera, although he says he can't quite pinpoint when this actually started.
I don’t know when, over the period of time, fandom became so contentious. But people are really opinionated, and you can’t help but be opinionated yourself, because you’ve lived with the character so long. So whether it was on Episode VII, VIII or IX, I’d have disagreements, and I would say to whoever it was, “Well, I don’t know if that’s right.” But everyone shares the same goal: you want to make the best movie you can.
I love the new cast. I think the characters are great and all the actors are just perfect. I wish I’d gotten to work with them more, obviously, because I was so isolated. But you know, I never expected to come back at all. It was bittersweet, but I was able to enjoy it from a different perspective than years ago when I was in my twenties. So it was just fun to be a part of it, and it was sad in a way, because I knew it would be the last time I’d ever play Luke.
The actor is looking at the ongoing discourse from his perspective, and as someone who had been with the role since the beginning, it makes sense that he had his own thoughts about how Luke was going to be handled. Since the Star Wars renaissance, Hamill had expressed some issues with regard to how the stories are handled - one of his most recurring issues was missing the opportunity to bring him, Fisher and Ford together for a reunion. The three legacy characters never shared the screen in any of the sequel films - in fact, Luke and Han didn't even get to appear together. Hamill recently revealed that at this point, Star Wars doesn't need him anymore with The Rise of Skywalker serving as his final outing as Luke Skywalker.
Hamill's observation has some merit with people being more vocal about their thoughts on how Disney and Lucasfilm handles Star Wars. However, the rise of social media is also a big part of this as everyone can simply express their thoughts for everyone to see, and that can cause some push back from those who don't necessarily agree with some things. At the end of the day, people will always have different opinions about everything, the best thing to do is to respect others and be civil in discussions.
Source: Daily Beast