Mark Hamill candidly shared that he does not think a young Luke Skywalker story would be fascinating enough to merit a standalone Star Wars film. In light of the upcoming Han Solo prequel spin-off, the legendary actor revealed that he would not personally be interested in seeing a prequel story based on his iconic character given that it would most likely just be him stuck on the desert planet of Tatooine with not much else to do than moisture farm.
The galaxy's favorite scoundrel originally played by Harrison Ford is getting a standalone film set before Han suddenly found himself and Chewbacca in the middle of the Rebellion's fight against the evil Empire. The younger iteration of the character will be played by Alden Ehrenreich and still has a release date of May 2018 despite the recent director kerfuffle that it went through. Considering we already know he's already been a smuggler for quite some time (enough to already have Jabba the Hutt hunting him), we get to see just how exactly he found his way into being a galactic outlaw - something that was not really explored in the original Star Wars trilogy.
Related: Ron Howard Teases Han Solo Movie Costumes
Appearing in the currently on-going D23 Expo in Anaheim, CA, Hamill explained the reason for his skepticism in a Luke prequel film in relation to Han's upcoming one when he caught up with reporters including Fandango:
“He had a more colorful life prior to Star Wars than I did. [A Luke Skywalker movie] would be set on a moisture farm on a desert planet. [Han] was a rogue and a scoundrel and there’s so much potential for his exploits, like how he got the Millennium Falcon from Lando, we have people on staff who are historians on it, who know every fact. And I’ll tell you, I haven’t seen the original movies since they were in theaters. I don’t watch them on home video, so you can tell the fans know more about it than me.”
In hindsight, Luke was still pretty young when the events of Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope took place, and had never really left Tatooine. He was about 19-20 years old whereas Han was several years older than him and has had his fair share of travels around the galaxy due to the nature of his job. A feature length film may be a little bit much for a Luke prequel, but should Disney and Lucasfilm decide to explore it, it can be in other forms of materials like novels, comic books or even an animated series. In fact, the last season of Star Wars Rebels just gave us our first look (albeit short and from far away) at a young Luke while Obi Wan Kenobi secretly looks after him from a distance.
Speaking of Obi Wan, a standalone film about him is arguably going to be more intriguing and fans have been campaigning for the character's solo adventure for quite some time now. His almost two decades in hiding on Tatooine after Luke and Leia were born has never been fully explored. Rebels has also given us a short glimpse of his time on the desert planet, but there are still a lot of things to cover in his supposedly quiet stint as old Ben Kenobi. Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy teased a new spin-off announcement this summer and who knows, the project may just finally be made official at D23.
Meanwhile, before fans get wrapped up with the notion of a Luke back story, his future is still in unknown in the world of Star Wars. Hamill is set to reprise the powerful Jedi later this year in Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi, where we will finally find out what drove him into voluntary isolation and how Rey's (Daisy Ridley) sudden emergence will affect how he operates moving forward.
Next: Star Wars 8 Features Hamill’s Best Performance as Luke
Source: Fandango
