The most passionate writer of Star Wars fan fiction is Luke Skywalker himself. Mark Hamill has admitted to writing his own stories about Luke in preparation for returning to the iconic role in Star Wars: The Last Jedi
On Monday, Entertainment Weekly published an interview excerpt with Hamill in which the actor said: “I wrote lots and lots of scenarios, I made notes that he fell in love with a woman who was a widow and had this young child.” Hamill also explained that this imaginary young child accidentally killed themselves with a lightsaber, which in his mind, explains Luke’s depression concerning lightsabers.
“It’s nothing to do with the story, but when I think about gun violence and you read these tragic stories of kids getting hold of their parents’ guns and killing a sibling or themselves, I mean, I had to go to really dark places to get where Luke needed to be for this story.”
As EW points out, literally none of Hamill’s concepts are canon, and therefore aren’t spoilers for The Last Jedi. But they are suggestive in several ways. First, what Hamill has concocted in the way of a backstory is ridiculously depressing. Meaning, Luke’s bad mood in The Last Jedi sounds to be even worse than the trailers have let on. Second, the fact Hamill felt the need to create additional explanations for Luke’s state of mind could indicate that the story of Ben Solo’s fall to the Dark Side of the Force might not actually be fleshed out in The Last Jedi all that much. Naturally, there’s a precedent for not putting too much backstory up front in Star Wars before, but at this point, it sounds like finding out exactly what Luke Skywalker was doing for for three decades in between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens might have be a great story, but for another time.
In the meantime, somebody at Marvel comics or Del Rey books should get in touch with Mark Hamill. It sounds like he’s got a few pitches for either a comic book miniseries or at least a couple of Star Wars novels.
Star Wars: Episode VIII: The Last Jedi opens everywhere on December 15. Check out all of Inverse’s coverage on the film right here.
