Luke Skywalker had a wife and a kid who both killed themselves. Well, not really, but that’s what Mark Hamill internalized in order to get into the headspace of the character for Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi. The actor has shared this information before, but it’s been a while, so we figured it was worth discussing again with a little distance.
Speaking on Bullseye with Jesse Thorn, Hamill explained the headcanon he created to try and understand why Luke Skywalker would have left the Jedi in the sequel trilogy. You can watch the clip here and we’ll quote it below.
Mark Hamill's MUCH darker backstory idea for Luke in the sequel trilogy 😳
Check out Saturday's episode of Last Week in Star Wars for our thoughts… pic.twitter.com/34mNbBD1xy
— Star Wars Explained (@StarWarsExplain) June 26, 2025
“I thought, what could make someone give up a devotion to what is basically a religious entity, to give up being a Jedi. Well, the love of a woman,” Hamill said. “So he falls in love with a woman. He gives up being a Jedi. They have a child together. At some point the child, as a toddler, picks up an unattended lightsaber, pushes the button and is killed instantly. The wife is so full of grief, she kills herself.”
He goes on to explain how that sad story resonated with him because of its parallels to modern society and unattended guns and that he didn’t really buy the explanation that writer-director Rian Johnson gave in the movie. Over the years, Hamill has been pretty vocal that he didn’t agree with Johnson’s plans for Luke, which he reiterates here. But that always bothered us a bit. That’s because, if you remember back, it was J.J. Abrams, not Rian Johnson, who put Luke on that island. Abrams made a whole movie about Luke on the island, explained nothing, and then just left it to the next guy. That next guy, Johnson, then created a pretty freaking dark and interesting way to explain it all: Luke almost killed his own nephew, who then betrayed him and murdered many, many children as a result.
Why his own version worked better for the actor over the one in the movie is unclear. Maybe it’s just that Hamill needed a more direct, emotional connection. Whatever the case though, all that matters is he found something to get him to the place where an audience believed. Which he did. Hamill is fantastic in the movie, which we feel is an unexpected but fitting send-off for Luke Skywalker. We’re sure every single other person on the internet agrees.
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