Earlier this week, Disney and Lucasfilm released the third and final trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. And Abrams, being the complete tease that he is, refused to give us a look at Luke Skywalker. In fact, with just two months until The Force Awakens release, the status of the legendary Jedi remains one of the film's biggest mysteries.
Aside from a single leaked image of Mark Hamill in costume behind-the-scenes (which Disney has been pretty effective in getting taken down), we haven't seen or heard much of the character Luke Skywalker.
Is J.J. Abrams saving the reveal for some kind of big twist — like, perhaps, Luke Skywalker having turned to the dark side? In an interesting twist, a 2005 episode of Kevin Smith's Dinner for Five has been revisited, and it features Mark Hamill talking about one of his idea's for Skywalker's fate in the original trilogy. During the segment, Hamill recounts a time he actually pitched to George Lucas the idea of his character, Luke Skywalker, turning to the dark side. Skip to the 12 minute mark for the exact clip.
"As an actor that would be more fun to play," Hamill said. "I just thought that’s the way it was going from when we finished. I figured that’s what will be the pivotal moment. I’ll have to come back, but it will be I have Han Solo in my crosshairs and I’ll be about to kill him or about to kill the Princess or about to kill somebody that we care about. It’ll be an old cornball movie, like World War II movies."
Of course, that's not the direction Lucas chose to take with the character. The real kicker, however, is the other person sitting at the table — it's none other that Star Wars: The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams. And ya know, he genuinely seems pretty intrigued with the idea.
Now I'm not saying Luke Skywalker has joined the dark side in The Force Awakens. I don't even know how it would work in the overall story. But it's certainly an interesting take on the character, and could explain why we've yet to actually see Luke Skywalker in any of the film's promotional material.
Side note: Hamill's impression of Harrison Ford is spot on.
