It's no secret that filmmaker Rian Johnson and actor Mark Hamill clashed while making Star Wars: The Last Jedi, with both men clearly disagreeing when it came to how Luke Skywalker should be portrayed.
Depicting the Jedi Master as a broken down old man who had fled after his nephew, Ben Solo, became Kylo Ren, this Luke eventually found redemption in death when he inspired the Galaxy. We're not sure how they'd have found out what happened, but the insinuation was that his legend would have spread after his confrontation with The First Order's new Supreme Leader.
Hamill has said he "fundamentally" disagreed with Johnson, and the director has now reflected on their difference of opinion while talking to Empire Magazine (via The Direct).
"I’m choosing my words carefully, not to be diplomatic, but I don’t want to frame Mark’s experience of this through my lens because there’s no possible way I can ever put myself in the shoes of Mark, or Carrie [Fisher], having lived their entire lives being known as these characters," he starts.
"And what it’s like to play them first in their twenties, and then to come back and play them in these movies and have a script handed to you saying, 'Well, it’s this now...' I can never fathom what that experience is like. It’s impossible."
"If Mark Hamill is talking to me about Luke Skywalker, I’m gonna listen to him, and I gotta think about that and argue with him and go back and forth," Johnson continues. "And genuinely plumb the depths of my soul and what I wrote and figure out if this seems right. Also, though, remembering that, obviously, he created the character on screen, but he’s Mark Hamill, he’s not literally Luke Skywalker. Luke Skywalker lives as a creation on that screen. He’s a myth."
"And as such, he only really lives in the minds of people who listen to and in various ways believe that myth. And I know that was me. So, it’s complicated. But I mean, the short answer to your question is, it was f***ing terrifying," the director added. "For all the back and forth, on day one of shooting, Mark said, 'Okay, this is the vision that you’re going for, and I’m going to do the best version of that I possibly can.'"
He certainly did that, and while The Rise of Skywalker attempted some level of damage control with Luke, it came across as bizarre and forced. Hamill, however, has found some measure of redemption with his appearances in The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett.
Do you think Johnson made the wrong call with Luke Skywalker in The Last Jedi?