Mark Hamill has famously never held back when expressing disagreements with decisions taken with “Star Wars.” The actor was very openly dubious of the way Luke’s story continued in “The Last Jedi,” but it turns out that was not the first time Hamill criticized the direction filmmakers took with his character. The actor originally disagreed with George Lucas himself on the positive tone of “Return of the Jedi,” and even said he wanted Luke Skywalker to turn to the dark side in the film.
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During a recent interview on SiriusXM’s EW Live podcast, Hamill talked about working on the original “Star Wars” trilogy and how he believed “Return of the Jedi” would continue the darker tone seen in “Empire Strikes Back,” and how he complained about the tone to George Lucas himself. “I said, ‘It’s so predictable and pat,’ and he said, ‘Mark don’t forget. These things were made for children,'”
“His original intention was to make movies for, you know, kids! Adolescents and younger,” Hamill continued. “And we’re bringing our adult sensibilities to it and that’s where we go wrong. He’s the man. He knows what he wants, and I realized he was right. He said, ‘All fairy tales get tied up neatly at the end.’ Because I thought after ‘Empire’ we should really go crazy as possible with the last one, but there’s a reason why George is where he is and I’m where I am.”
Hamill also talked about how he was convinced Luke would take the Emperor’s offer and embrace the Dark Side in the film, originally titled “Revenge of the Jedi.” He expressed his initial disappointment when he saw the film go in a different direction.
“Well, I thought I was turning evil. Because I was wearing all black,” the actor said. “I thought I would go to the dark side in the last one. And, of course, you have to redeem yourself. But that movie is the way I felt it was going with the preceding episode, but every actor wants to play their own evil twin.”
