‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ Concept Art Reveals ‘Last Jedi’ Plans Were Not Changed

One of the go-to explanations that Star Wars: The Last Jedi detractors share to support their ideas about the film’s shortcomings is claiming that the film failed to capitalize on what Star Wars: The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams intended to explore with this sequel trilogy. Despite the filmmakers themselves correcting these opinions, other clues often emerge to refute these notions, such as concept art recently posted by artist Christian Alzmann.

In The Last Jedi, Luke was depicted as having lost his faith in the Jedi Order, choosing to distance himself not only from the Force but also everyone he knew and loved. Some fans were disappointed that Luke wasn’t shown as the heroic warrior that they had assumed he was, resulting in a backlash against the film.

As seen in the art above, Alzmaan revealed, “Luke was being described as a Col. Kurtz type hiding from the world in a cave. I couldn’t believe I was getting to make this image and I got a George ‘Fabulouso’ on it to boot.”

Colonel Kurtz is Marlon Brando’s character from Apocalypse Now, a military man who became so overwhelmed with his own savage tactics used during the Vietnam War, he went AWOL in the country’s immense and secluded rainforests.

Lucasfilm Creative Art Manager Phil Szostak shared the Instagram post on Twitter, following up in a comment, “I worked on [The Force Awakens] from pretty much the very beginning and was present at the January 16, 2013 meeting at Skywalker Ranch with George Lucas that Christian mentions here (and that is described in greater detail in The Art of The Last Jedi).”

While Lucas himself effectively retired from filmmaking when he sold Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012, though the pressures involved with finally delivering audiences a sequel to Star Wars: Return of the Jedi after more than 30 years led to Lucas being involved in the early stages of development, including his outlook on Luke’s mentality.

The events of The Last Jedi saw Luke becoming one with the Force, yet Hamill is confirmed to appear in Star Wars: Episode IX, despite audiences being unaware if he’ll appear as a ghost or in flashback sequences.

Star Wars: Episode IX lands in theaters in December of 2019.

Are you glad that The Last Jedi stuck with the original plans for Luke? Let us know in the comments below or hit up @TheWolfman on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!