Mark Hamill’s return to the role of Luke Skywalker made more headlines about his opinions regarding how the character was treated in The Last Jedi than his performance. It’s this kind of meta-analysis informing the opinions on the movie itself that is sort of consuming nerd culture at the moment. It’s an ouroboros of takes.
The fact is, Hamill is just like us, except he’s Luke Skywalker. He had some strong feelings about how Rian Johnson wanted to move the story forward, and he now regrets making his making the butting of heads with the writer and director of Star Wars 8 public. He said as much at SXSW during a screening of The Director and the Jedi, a new documentary based on the making of The Last Jedi.
At the panel, he said: “Here I am going home again, but it was a house I didn’t recognize at all.”
Now we see that he was home, and it was an emotional return for him. The Star Wars Twitter account posted a brief clip from a feature on the Last Jedi Blu-ray, which shows Hamill overwhelmed by emotion as he prepares to do a scene with Frank Oz as Yoda.
https://twitter.com/theswlegacy/status/973267582521356289
It’s a beautiful affirmation that Hamill cares as much as the fans. He isn’t just playing Luke, he is Luke, but we can’t pick and choose the stories of our lives.