Mark Hamill Deals Blow to Fans of ‘Star Wars’ Sequels With Devastating Truth
Mark Hamill has never shied away from speaking candidly about Star Wars, and now the actor has revealed what he really thought was missing from Luke Skywalker’s story. His latest comments may sting for fans still divided over Disney’s sequel trilogy.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Hamill explained that Luke’s character arc always felt incomplete. For him, the Jedi Knight was robbed of a crucial “middle chapter.” That gap left a version of Luke that fans never had the chance to experience.
“The reason I did Mandalorian was that Luke had a beginning and an end. There was no middle,” Hamill said. “It was like making a trilogy about James Bond as a young boy… Part three is earning his license to kill — The End. No From Russia With Love, Dr. No or Goldfinger.”
Mark Hamill Criticizes Key Element of ‘Star Wars’ Sequels
Hamill’s point highlights one of the most consistent criticisms of the Star Wars sequels: they denied audiences a chance to see Luke at the height of his powers. Instead, the films jumped ahead to an older, broken version of the character, leaving fans wondering what happened to the optimistic hero who once defined the saga.
“You never got to see Luke as a Master Jedi at the peak of his powers,” Hamill said. “He was the most idealistic character in that series. He was someone who would take adversity and double down and come back and counter his setbacks. We didn’t see any of that.”
That missing piece, Hamill admitted, is exactly what made his return in The Mandalorian so special. The Disney+ series allowed him to step back into Luke’s boots and finally portray the Jedi at his strongest — the hero that fans had waited decades to see.
Hamill credited The Mandalorian‘s showrunner, Jon Favreau, and Lucasfilm’s chief creative officer, Dave Filoni, for bringing that vision to life. “So when I got the chance, I thought, ‘Geez, this is wonderful,’” he recalled. “I think Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni, boy, do they get Star Wars. They get it. They’re speaking the same language that George did in a way that I questioned in the sequels.”
There were lots of things fans criticized in the sequels, including the decision not to make Finn (John Boyega) a Jedi and the decision to kill off Kylo Ren/Ben Solo (Adam Driver) immediately after his redemption. However, Skywalker’s arc in the sequels proved most divisive.
Fans were split over Rian Johnson’s decision to portray him as a disillusioned recluse in Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017), with some praising the bold direction and others decrying the loss of the heroic Jedi they had long admired. His death in The Last Jedi left many feeling his journey ended too abruptly.
Hamill, Harrison Ford (Han Solo), and the late, great Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia) all reprised their iconic roles for the sequels, but while Han and Leia’s stories carried emotional weight, Luke’s portrayal became the lightning rod for controversy
This is arguably the closest Hamill – who has emphasized that he is now done playing Luke Skywalker – has ever come to admitting his overall distaste for the sequel trilogy, in what is likely a blow to some diehard fans of Disney’s trilogy. He has, however, previously criticized Rian Johnson’s choices in the Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
“Jedis don’t give up,” he said on Luke’s storyline in the film. “I mean, even if he had a problem, he would maybe take a year to try and regroup, but if he made a mistake, he would try and right that wrong, so right there, we had a fundamental difference, but it’s not my story anymore.”
What do you think of Luke Skywalker’s story in the Star Wars sequels?
