Mark Hamill Reveals 1 Thing George Lucas Would Never Do in Star Wars (Disney Did It 3 Times)

Mark Hamill outlines one key difference between George Lucas’ and Disney’s approach to making Star Wars movies. While promoting his new movie The Life of Chuck, Hamill appeared on TODAY and discussed his time in the iconic sci-fi franchise. He recalled a moment during the production of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi when he asked Lucas if the movie should be more about Luke’s internal struggle about turning to the dark side. The filmmaker responded by reminding his actor about Star Wars’ young target audience. That was also the main reason why Lucas was against killing off main characters.

“In the third one, I said, ‘You know, Luke has lost his hand. He’s got the black glove. Shouldn’t it be about Luke struggling with turning to the dark side?’” Hamill said. “And George said, ‘Mark, it’s for children.’ And that’s why he would never consider killing any of the main characters. In the new ones, they pop us off one at a time.”

Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fisher reprised their original trilogy roles in the sequel trilogy. In each installment, one of the legacy characters dies. Kylo Ren murders Han Solo in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Luke Skywalker heroically sacrifices himself at the end of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and Princess Leia passes away in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker after reaching out to Kylo Ren and encouraging him to come back to the light. The trio of younger Resistance heroes at the heart of the sequels — Rey, Finn, and Poe Dameron — all survive the trilogy.

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With Luke now dead, Hamill doesn’t have much interest in reprising the character as a Force ghost (something he did in The Rise of Skywalker) in a future project such as the movie Star Wars: New Jedi Order. He feels it’s time for the Star Wars franchise to move forward and put the focus entirely on new characters.

Though Lucas was never in favor of killing the main characters of the original trilogy (he vetoed Han Solo dying in Return of the Jedi), he seemed more open to it years later. Prior to selling Lucasfilm to Disney, Lucas worked on his own treatment for a sequel trilogy, which included Luke dying in Episode VIII. Lucas was never averse to killing supporting characters (Obi-Wan Kenobi), so perhaps he intended on having the legacy characters return in that kind of role, making it easier for him to contemplate Luke’s death. Skywalker would no longer be the main hero young people look up to. Of course, since Lucas’ sequel trilogy only exists in treatment form, he might have decided to change some things if he had gotten the opportunity to make the films. His ideas for the Star Wars movies were constantly evolving; originally, Darth Vader wasn’t Luke’s father.

It was difficult for longtime Star Wars fans to watch their favorite classic heroes perish in each sequel trilogy film, but arguably, the filmmakers made the right calls there. Those films attempted to balance introducing new characters with continuing the arcs of the main original trilogy trio. From a storytelling perspective, it would have been hard to give six characters meaningful, significant roles across all three movies. Choosing one of the legacy characters to be the primary supporting player each time out (Leia was going to have a larger role in Episode IX before Carrie Fisher’s death) and having that movie be a send-off for them worked well. Assuming Lucasfilm is able to get New Jedi Order off the ground, it’ll be interesting to see if Rey eventually has a noble end of her own as she passes the torch to the next generation.