Pretty much every fan, viewer, and analyst who set eyes on Star Wars: The Force Awakens had thoughts about each story beat, character development, and Easter Egg hidden away in the movie. As the first Star Wars movie in more than a decade, and the first good one (for most people) in far longer than that, everybody was naturally excited to not only see the movie but see what the characters everyone knew and loved had been up to for the decades since people last saw them.
Unfortunately for Han Solo, what he was “up to” was [SPOILER ALERT!] being murdered by his good-turned-evil son Kylo Ren via a lightsaber right in the gut and a long fall off a rickety catwalk. Chewie, his devoted and constant companion, and new protege Rey watched from a hidden location as the dramatic moment occurred — not being able to do a thing about Han’s tragic death. If it were up to Mark Hamill though, that scene would have played out differently.
The actor, known of course for portraying Luke Skywalker throughout four of the franchise’s films, wanted a specific change to be made to the script so that Luke and his friend Han could be together one more time before the latter’s death. In a recent interview with Fandango, Hamill lays out his plan clearly but admits that it might not have been the best idea. He explained,
“When I was reading it, I thought if Leia is trying to mentally contact me and she is unsuccessful, she’ll rush to his [Han’s] aid and get into some dire situation, and that’s when I show up. I save her life, and then we rush to Han, and then we are in the same position that Rey and Finn and Chewie are — too late to save him, but witnesses.”
Hamill admitted that he has bad ideas all the time and that this could very well be one of them, and it would have completely taken away from the emotional resonance of Luke appearing for a few brief seconds at the end of the film. Even so, having iconic characters like Luke and Han share the screen one more time would have been a great thing to witness.