Star Wars: The Last Jedi Won’t Reveal A Lot of Luke Skywalker’s Backstory

One of the biggest looming questions hanging over the upcoming Star Wars: The Last Jedi is what Luke Skywalker has been up to ever since the events of Return of the Jedi.

In a new spread over in EW, the issue of Luke’s unexplained past was brought up with Luke Skywalker actor Mark Hamill, who revealed something that fans may not want to hear: Star Wars: The Last Jedi won’t be revealing all of Luke’s backstory.

Check out what the actor revealed about Luke’s storyline in The Last Jedi – including what will not be revealed in the film.

Where Did Luke Go?

According to Hamill, Luke’s backstory wasn’t fully filled in for The Last Jedi, simply because it wasn’t essential to the current storyline: 

There’s massive amounts of backstory that is left to your imagination and I couldn’t do my job without figuring out what that was. Since it’s not really important to the main story as a whole a lot of it is just for my own process. I talked with Rian about it and went into this elaborate scenario of what happened to Luke after the end of the Return of the Jedi.

While Star Wars: Episode VIII won’t be giving a full breakdown of Luke Skywalker’s history, the effect of that history on his character will in fact be a major part of the story. According to Hamill, The Last Jedi will show a version of Luke who is conflicted about what he’s been through, and what he’s not become: 

I think he probably looks out on the horizon and wishes that he could be more effective, could be what Obi-Wan wanted him to be. But life is imperfect and without conflict there is no drama. Believe me, you’re going to see a lot of conflict in The Last Jedi. That is for sure.

Going Grey

There been a lot of fan speculation regarding the enigmatic nature of that first Last Jedi teaser trailer – specifically regarding Luke Skywalker’s claim that the Jedi need to end. Based on that, and the trailer’s opening voiceover about a balance between the light and dark sides of the Force, fans are thinking that Luke and Rey (Daisy Ridley) could be on the path to becoming the “Grey Jedi” from Star Wars lore. 

That theory fits with what Hamill has been saying about Luke’s role in the new galactic conflict taking place, and where it may ultimately be leading. Rian Johnson teased the following: 

The very first step in the writing of this was figuring out why he’s on that island. We know that he is not a coward. He’s not just hiding because he’s scared. But we also know that he must know his friends are in danger. He must know the galaxy needs him. And he’s sitting on this island in the middle of nowhere. There had to be an answer. It had to be something where Luke Skywalker believes he’s doing the right thing – and the process of figuring out what that is and unpacking it is the journey for Rey.