Mark Hamill Discusses the Episode VIII Title “The Last Jedi”!
Mark Hamill was at Sundance, promoting his latest movie called Brigsby Bear. During the event Upproxx got a chance to speak with the actor, who briefly touched on the newly released Star Wars: Epsiode VIII title, revealing that the answer “who is the last Jedi” may not be that apparent as many of us thought. Hamill also discussed his relationship with The Empire Strikes Back director Irvin Kershner. Read on for the details.
From Uproxx:
In 2010, I interviewed Irvin Kershner for a Vanity Fair piece on the 30th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back, which wound up being his last interview before he passed away. He spoke highly of you, but reading between the lines I got the impression he thought he frustrated you at times.
No, he did. Listen, as opposed to George, George is more technical and he doesn’t really want to talk about motivation and backstory and that kind of thing. Kershner was much more of an actor’s director and we were both very headstrong and opinionated. So I think what he’s referring to is that we butted heads a couple of times over interpretation or whatever it was. And I’d say, “Well, fine. I’ll do it your way, but I’m not happy about it and I think you’re wrong.” But I loved him and I think he appreciated the fact that I was opinionated and engaged, because that’s the relationship of a director and an actor, to collaborate like that.
Do you like the new Star Wars title, The Last Jedi? I guess it would be weird if you said, “No, I don’t.”
I mean, I was told way back when we were doing the film what it was and I really liked it. I didn’t realize, though, that actual phrase is in the crawl for Episode VII.
Oh yeah, you’re right. I didn’t think of that until you just said that.
By the way, when you read The Force Awakens script, the very first two words are, “Luke Skywalker has vanished.” Ooh, baby, this is going to be good! I’m going to have a great part! But down later in the crawl, and I can’t quote it exactly, I saw on Twitter this morning, “until Skywalker, the last Jedi, is destroyed.” I thought, well, I didn’t know that! I’ve only seen it twice – VII, I mean. And I was wondering why they would use that phrase if it was used that way, because it specifies me. And I think it’s very ambiguous. Is the last Jedi Leia? Is it me?
Or is it Rey?
Is it someone we’ve never met before? Or is it Rey? Because she seems to have the force as well. So we’ll all wait and see.
From Mark’s wording it appears that the Episode VIII title may not be referring only to him in Episode VIII, as the same words did in The Force Awakens crawl. Still, we have to remember that Hamill is master at posting confusing and sometimes even trolling comments, misleading the ever hungry Star Wars fans.
So what do you think? Is Luke the last Jedi? Or there will be more…
Founder of SWNN, MNN and The Cantina forums.
Born on April 24, 1980.
“From Mark’s wording it appears…”
Difficult to believe anyone takes what Mark says seriously. It’s not wise to draw conclusions from anything he says.
Can you please explain your reasoning here?
he’s well aware of how people overthink these things and what the current “beliefs” are, so he drops these little bombs once in awhile. If there was video you would be able to see the tongue-in-cheek factor.
Got it, and appreciated. Thanks for adjustment to the proper angle.
That’s why there is a following sentence after that explaining not to fully trust such statements especially from Mark.
Don’t do this Mark..you’re giving me hopes of a Skywalker son or daughter we haven’t met yet running around and doin your deeds.
The title gives me hope that Luke will feature prominently in Ep.8. Hopefully he will pass on what he has learned. I think the entire SW community wants to see Luke in action, like (but probably not exactly like!) we saw with Darth Vader in RO.
I hope that in this movie Rey struggles a lot trying to use the Force and it is explained that her power surge was only temporary because of the Awakening of the force within her.
That would be cool, or they could go the other way and have the force surging more and she can’t control it. Imagine a reversal of Luke’s training, with Obi-wan & Yoda trying to get Luke to tap into the force and control it, so that Rey is fighting to restrain it instead.
I’d like to see that. She can be like Force-sensitive Elsa.
It would make an interesting twist having Rey as a weapon that can’t be controlled. The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the force.
Exactly.
As long as she doesn’t break into a space verision of Let it go…
BEAT KYLO! BEAT KYLO! I just beat this weird emo guy!!
It would also make all the whiners about how fast she developed her powers be quiet for a minute.
Very true!! I think its a plausible explanation and something fresh. I’m ok with the awakening being a surge to start as well, but then the training becomes a repeat of what we’ve seen before.
I’m still thinking she’s abnormally strong. After Luke failed Ben… he was maybe hiding her away because he didn’t want to risk failing her. Or worse. Someone turning her. Either way I’d like to think she’s dangerous because of how powerful she appears to be.
you familar with Bloodline book?
No I didn’t read it. I guess it destroys my theories? 😛
Especially to do with the timeline
Ben was still good just 6 years before TFA
Hopefully we will get the story of Luke’s failed Jedi academy by means of flashback or a novel. It seems like a good story was skipped over that could’ve made for compelling storytelling.
I think it’ll be a big part of the story. I mean it’s what put everything in motion. Ben fell to the dark side… destroyed the “order?” Prompting Luke to seek answers that saw him leaving for quite some time. Also Rey seemingly abandoned.
Only way I see it happening on film is via the Tarkin technology since Hamill isn’t getting any younger looking.
De-aging an actor is much easier than creating a new performance from a dead guy.
Well Ben was still traveling around with Luke 5 years for TFW I think.
Ben Solo’s childhood years and the Jedi Academy could be covered in an animated series. It would make more sense.
Bring in JK Rowling to write the story. They can fly around on their lightsabers and play quidditch.
the last jedi must be: LOBOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Pruneface.
Uh, I mean the last jedi should be pruneface. Not calling you pruneface :p
Doesn’t variations of that joke ever get old.
I hope it is revealed that Leia has been trained and that she was the first Luke took as a student. It doesn’t appear that way in 7 but could it be they wanted to reveal that she’s powerful in 8? I know JJ stated otherwise. That could have just been in the context of 7. I hope they show that she doesn’t just have premonition of the force but is a Jedi. That would explain why Trevorow had such huge plans for her in IX.
Star Wars, the OT, is Luke point view of the story, a bit hidden but is basically that.
Lets compare it to make it clear:
Dexter.
Other people has his power: “killing without regrets”.
But he is basically the only one doing it for good.
Luke perspective in OT is the same, he is the only one who can save the galaxy, because he is the only good wise user of the force active.
Lets connect ending of Dexter with the ST.
Dexter disappear pretending his own dead and abandoning his own son “Harrison”.
Why Dexter disappear?
Because someone near, her sister, had used his power but to kill an innocent, LaGüerta.
Guilty, vanished far away and left his son to the custody of a fellow serial killer and lover.
So we don´t know yet the reasons of Luke hiding.
It is not certain why Ben Solo become Kylo, why Rey was left in Jakku, how her story fits in the Skywalker family story, what hapened when it was public Leia was daughter of Vader, may be that is the reason of Luke hiding… even it is not clear (as I know) that it was Kylo Ren who destroyed his academy, at least not in the film.
Based on OT, what we all are expecting is the Luke we knew in OT, his point of view of the story. The storytellers sent us a story with a load of subjectivity, and that was Luke Skywalker.
But the ST is not going to be mainly Luke point of view, it is the next generation.
How did it feel watching the prequels, learning that your fictional father was such an ultimate douchebag?
Could it be that Luke passed on his powers to Rey across the galaxy somehow, because of the dire situation and his lack of motivation to intervene? Not very Star Warsey, I know. But a theory is a theory.
Remote controlled Rey? Sent to retrieve his lightsaber? Doesn’t sound completley crazy.
No, that’s not how the force works.
That’s certainly not a bad theory at all. I do feel like the Force / Luke is summoning her, in some way.
I still think there is a Sith temple buried on Jakku. aftermath has hinted at it. That could be tied to Reys inexplicable powers
Yep. i feel like she might be born of the force.
Nope – she’s not going to be a “spontaneous birth” — she has parents, they left her on Jakku.
She ASSUMES that her parents left her there, but she was a little girl. What does she know?
Well Jedi can be used for the singular and the plural, so it could just as easily be the last million Jedi.
Yeah, Calling bullshit on GL not caring about backstory. He probably gave him that impression due to how shy he used to be (and he still is for someone as famous he is) but we got PLENTY of backstory on every minor character on TCW to the point that that it brought some episodes down. He may not be willing to share that information with his actors but Lucas has always been thorough in terms of that with all his works.
Wrong.
George didn’t do backstory on the characters in the film and backstory in TCW is entirely different. In TCW that was STORY. And that backstory wasn’t there during filming of the prequels. It only came out when they were making episodes of TCW.
Terence Stamp, who played Chancellor Valorum in TPM, asked Lucas about his character’s backstory and Lucas seemed taken aback that he would even ask. I heard that anecdote back in 1999, I think. It’s well known.
And this is Mark Hamill you are calling bullshit on. I imagine he knows better than you or I. And his story jives with what we have heard about Lucas for years.
Story isn’t created until it is needed. TCW stories didn’t exist until they made those episodes.
That’s not what Mark said, though. What he actually said was “George is more technical and he doesn’t really want to talk about motivation and backstory and that kind of thing.” And he said it in the context of on-set communication between Lucas and his actors.
This is something that we’ve always heard, going right back to the beginning. Harrison, Carrie and Mark always joked that Lucas’ idea of directing his actors was to tell them to do a given scene “faster, and more intense.” This is not a man who gets into philosophical discussions with his actors about their character’s motivations and backstory.
Yes, Lucas wrote down a lot of notes that he later used for character backstory, but that had nothing to do with how he directed his actors on the set, and that’s what Mark is talking about here.
I still think Luke is the last Jedi. It says the first order will not rest until SKYWALKER, THE LAST JEDI IS destroyed. So yea unless he does and Rey becomes the last
Unless ofcourse, Rey is a Skywalker after all 😀
I don’t want Luke, or Rey for that matter, to be the last Jedi. It would be depressing if there were no more Jedi going forward.
I can see your point. I was hoping that the reason why Luke went into hiding was that he had a plan. Basically, to secretly train a bunch of Jedi/Force Sensitives and get their group ready to fight off the Knights of Ren/ First Order.
That would have fit perfectly with Luke as him being older he is the type who would plan things ahead. I often saw him as a mix of Yoda and Obi-wan. Very powerful, but also strong in terms of wisdom and tactical awareness.
I do not want my favourite Jedi being killed. He will live forever, because of all the the fights he has fought to restore the peace in the galaxy he deserves to be the eternal jedi, I always thought he could have children and grandchildren. I wrote a story about him with adventures in another galaxy and having children this story refers to some years of Luke´s life when he leaves the galaxy for a while. I do not like Disney idea’s of killing everybody. If George Lucas would have made these movies with new directors they had turned out to be very good stories, but that cannot be changed, I did not like the force awakens, but anyway I have accepted it you cannot ask JJ Abrams to have GL’S depth. I liked most Rogue one, but the ending was not my favorite I hope Episode VIII can be better, I would like to see Luke as the badass Jedi he is.
I can understand where you are coming from, man. I’m mixed on TFA and find it really disappointing. Rogue One, I absolutely loved and that was the movie where I finally said SWs movie wise was back. Because, outside TFA, I’ve actually been enjoying the New Canon.
it’s hard to compare Legends, 25 plus years of material to something so recent, but for what it is worth it has been decent. Minus a few things, Dark disciple(screw that book) .
The Last Jedi I have high hopes for. It helps that Rian Johnson is one of my favorite directors of all time. His work, limited, eclipsed anything Abrams has done. His talent is in characters as he likes character driven stories. Much like Kershner. Not to say that Rian will be like Kershner.
But given how he can coax some wonderful performances and that the new cast are wonderful actors, I’m psyched to see where this goes. So overall, I understand why people are skeptical. I cannot blame them because TFA really was diet LOTRS Fellowship of the ring.
But TLJ has a chance to potentially change things around. And I know that Rian would never copy ESB. Unless, Kennedy and LucasFilm force him, because Rian has stated repeatdly, TLJ will be very different.
I hope SW the last jedi can be a better movie, Rogue One had the spirit of the original trilogy, I believe Gareth Edwards really understood SW and he is a truly real fan, I have heard that Rian Jonson is a very good director so I hope his movie can be great, but there is always the problem with the movie studios, sometimes they take corporative decisions to earn money and they do not care about a good movie, Mr Lucas was very lucky to have the control of his movies when he did the OT, anyway I can´t wait to see the Last Jedi and the awesome Luke´s adventures.
I agree about Edwards. That movie was a big love letter to the OT. it has a lot of small details and subtleties that most would miss on a first viewing. But seeing it a second time made me appreciate the movie so much more. But really I argue the biggest flaw was that i wish we could have spent more time and the movie would have been more character rather than plot driven.
The soundtrack was a bit of letdown as well. I understand why, but it was really lame. As for Rian Johnson, yes he is a terrific director. Looper was great, minus some problems and Brick is amazing as well.
He reminds me of Kershner in that Rian does characters very well. TFA didn’t do that, but has amazing actors. And Rian can coax some amazing performances. I’m expecting Mark Hamill to be incredible as Luke Skywalker, as Rian made Bruce Willis amazing again.
Also, expect something different and unique. Because, Rian isn’t blinded by OT love. He likes those movies, but he realizes he cannot coast off of what made SWs great. He needs to add to that and expand what the series is.
So expect some really cool things.
I agree with you about Rogue one I liked it a lot, but I wanted to know more about the characters, I know they have these books like catalyst that have much more depth about the characters, however I enjoy just watching the movies and I would like they had more depth in them or at least an interesting story with interesting characters. I am a positive person so I believe SW TLJ will be great.
Interesting side note, concerning the set images of the tree, One of the track names on ESB is “The Magic Tree.”
Luke IS the Last Jedi, but not the Last OF the Jedi. Snoke confirms it when he first talks to Kylo in Episode VII (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KW8dD5JukQ). He says that the droid will ” lead them to the Last Jedi. If Skywalker returns, he will give rise to the new Jedi.” So, Luke is the Last Jedi, and only he can give rise to a new order of Jedi, ie Rey.