Mark Hamill's Force Awakens Burn Shows How Badly Its Luke Skywalker Story Missed The Mark

Iconic Luke Skywalker actor Mark Hamill still isn’t pleased with how Star Wars: The Force Awakens handled Luke’s story in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, and his recent post on X demonstrates why. Among Star Wars’ movies and TV shows, the original trilogy remains some of Star Wars’ best movies. Therefore, when the sequel trilogy was announced, and it was probable that the original trilogy’s cast and characters would return, the possibilities seemed endless and thrilling. However, The Force Awakens wrote Luke Skywalker out almost entirely, which was a grave misstep that got the sequels off to a bad start.

Mark Hamill has certainly made his negative perceptions of how The Force Awakens handled Luke Skywalker’s sequels story known, previously referring to the movie as his only silent film. However, it seems even 10 years later, the disappointment lingers, as Mark Hamill jokingly posted on X that he had already memorized his lines during an early script read-through.

Notably, Hamill had no lines in The Force Awakens and only appeared at the end, making this an accurate and humorous burn.

The Star Wars Sequel Trilogy Wasted Luke Skywalker

While the sequel movies don’t necessarily deserve all the intense backlash they received, they did make some odd choices and major mistakes from the very beginning. Perhaps one of the biggest mistakes throughout the sequel trilogy was Luke Skywalker’s story arc, which not only saw Luke with a considerably diminished role but also meant he was barely on-screen throughout the trilogy. In The Force Awakens, Luke only appeared at the very end, and all he did was silently turn around and look irritated.

This brief, unsatisfying moment also solidified that Luke had turned his back on the galaxy, essentially betraying his own values and undercutting his characterization from the original trilogy. Rather than the hope-filled, selfless farm boy turned Jedi of the original trilogy, Luke had become a nearly unrecognizable hermit who thought the Jedi were beyond saving. His absence from The Force Awakens also meant that audiences never got the long hoped-for reunion between Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Han Solo, and Star Wars: The Last Jedi then also focused too much on justifying why he would have abandoned them.

As Mark Hamill’s commentary in his post on X suggests, this was a massive disappointment and a waste of an incredible character. There is so much Luke Skywalker could have been doing in the sequel trilogy, and, all the worse, audiences hadn’t gotten to see him in his prime as a Jedi Master. This decision to barely have Luke Skywalker in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and, even when he did appear, give him no lines, truly got the sequel trilogy off on the wrong foot, and that beginning permeated the two subsequent movies.

Source: Mark Hamill

Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens

Set 30 years after Star Wars: Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, Star Wars: The Force Awakens teams new heroes Finn (John Boyega), Rey (Daisy Ridley), and Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) with Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher), who is now a General in the Rebel Alliance. Together they try to track down Luke Skywalker while battling the First Order, led by the villainous Kylo Ren. The Force Awakens is the first Star Wars film to be produced by Disney and was directed by JJ Abrams.

Release Date

December 17, 2015

Cast

Daisy Ridley , John Boyega , Oscar Isaac , Harrison Ford , Mark Hamill , Carrie Fisher , Adam Driver , Andy Serkis , Lupita Nyong’o , Max Von Sydow , Peter Mayhew , Simon Pegg

ALL STAR WARS MOVIES AND TV SHOWS ARE AVAILABLE TO STREAM ON DISNEY+