Star Wars: George Lucas Originally Planned Luke Skywalker’s Death in Episode 8

Star Wars creator George Lucas originally planned for Luke Skywalker to die in Episode 8. This news trickles out a new book by Lucasfilm’s Pablo Hidalgo, who has the good about the wildly-popular series (credit to /Film.) A lot of fans had some pronounced feelings about Rian Johnson’s decisions concerning his Star Wars movie. But, the writer explains things wouldn’t have been much better for people who wanted the protagonist to hang around. Hidalgo wrote, “years before The Last Jedi began development, the treatment left behind by George Lucas in 2012 also had Episode 8 be the one wherein Luke Skywalker would die.” So, that doesn’t mean that Lucas would make the exact same decisions, but it sounds like the Jedi wouldn’t have made it to the end of the Skywalker Saga unscathed.

Mark Hamill has been asked about his read of Luke’s ending endlessly since The Last Jedi hit theaters. The actor tried to maintain a balance and perform but made it very clear that he didn’t agree with the decision.

“I said to Rian, ‘Jedis don’t give up.’ I mean, even if [Luke] had a problem, he would maybe take a year to try and regroup, but if he made a mistake, he would try to right that wrong, so right there, we had a fundamental difference,” Hamill shared of his initial reaction to the script. “But it’s not my story anymore, it’s somebody else’s story and Rian needed me to be a certain way to make the ending effective. That’s the crux of my problem. Luke would never say that. I’m sorry.”

Yoda showing up as a Force ghost actually did a lot to hammer the core of his journey home.

“Well, in this version…see, I’m talking about the George Lucas Star Wars, this is the next generation of Star Wars,” Hamill observed. “I almost had to think of Luke as another character. Maybe he’s ‘Jake Skywalker,’ he’s not my Luke Skywalker. But I had to do what Rian wanted me to do because it serves the story well. Listen, I still haven’t accepted it completely, but, it’s only a movie. I hope people like it. I hope they don’t get upset. I came to really believe that Rian was the exact man they needed for this job.”

You can stream Star Wars: The Last Jedi on Disney+ and Star Wars: The Mandalorian returns at the end of the month on the streaming platform as well.

Do you like what the sequel trilogy did with Luke? Let us know in the comments!