Poor Luke Skywalker.
After defeating Emperor “Sheev” Palpatine, he lost his father, felt personally responsible for Kylo Ren slaughtering his Jedi students, exiled himself on an island that sounds like a sneeze (Ahch-To), and almost went blind. But that’s all happiness and ewok smiles compared to Mark Hamill’s backstory for Luke.
Now, none of this is official Star Wars canon — it all comes from the same mind that gave us the definitive Joker — but “actors like backstories,” Hamill told Entertainment Weekly. “They want to know motivation and all those things, and it’s such a blank slate. You know, if you look at it intellectually, I realized that it’s not my story anymore and so what [Luke] did or did not do in the intervening years aren’t really important to the audience at this point, but I have to work it out for myself.” What he worked out is more tragic than Max Rebo’s solo career.
“He left the Jedi to raise this young child and marry this woman,” Hamill says. “And the child got hold of a lightsaber and accidentally killed himself. It’s nothing to do with the story, but when I think about gun violence and you read these tragic stories of kids getting hold of their parents’ guns and killing a sibling or themselves, I mean, I had to go to really dark places to get where Luke needed to be for this story.” All Luke wanted to do was go to Tosche Station to pick up some power convertors, but now… this. It’s official: the Dark Side won.
(Via Entertainment Weekly)