Mark Hamill Offers His TWISTED Theory on Why Luke Went Hermit in STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI

Hamill shares his personal head canon for what led Luke Skywalker to suicidal solitude in the sequel movie… And fair warning, it’s pretty dark… and kind of ridiculous. The idea in Star Wars: The Last Jedi that Luke went into hermitude because his Kylo Ren, at the time, Ben Solo kills a whole cadre of his students, honestly makes so much more sense than Hamill’s theory. But we guess, Hamill felt compelled to create it. Here’s what he said on Bullseye with Jesse Thorn:

I thought, what could make someone give up a devotion to what is basically a religious entity, to give up being a Jedi? Well, the love of a woman. So he falls in love with a woman. He gives up being a Jedi. They have a child together. At some point, the child, as a toddler, picks up an unattended lightsaber, pushes the button and is killed instantly. The wife is so full of grief, she kills herself.

I thought, that would be… because I hear these horrible stories about these children who find unattended guns and wind up dead,” he continued. “That resonated with me so deeply that, that could possibly… but he didn’t have the time to tell a backstory like that, I’m guessing. He just wanted a brief thing to explain it. And to me, it didn’t justify it.

Uhm, excuse us, but what? Hamill’s vision of the story is that Luke Skywalker had to become a hermit in Star Wars: The Last Jedi because he accidentally left his lightsaber unattended. And then Luke’s imaginary young child killed himself, and his wife killed herself too? We really, really don’t know about that one. It just feels too incidental and kind of absurd. Not to mention, it has no relation to the plot at hand whatsoever. Plus, fridging is just so passe.

Hamill shares that he’s not sure he should have voiced his unhappiness with Luke’s The Last Jedi story publicly, but privately, he had no choice.

He notes, “The fact that I went public with my dissatisfaction with the motivation for Luke becoming a suicidal hermit might have colored things in a way that, maybe I should have kept that to myself. But I kept saying to Rian, ‘This would just make Luke double down even…’ and he said, ‘Well, your class at the Jedi Academy were wiped out.’ I said, ‘Rian, I saw entire planets wiped out! If anything, Luke doubles down and hardens his resolve in the face of adversity.’ So that’s all.”

And, to that end, we have to agree, Luke HAS seen all of that, which is why we’re not sure Hamill’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi theory makes any more sense. But, as we mentioned, it was necessary for Hamill to proceed. He adds, “I said, ‘Can I make up my own backstory of why he is the way he is? I don’t want to just say that I have bumped my head and I have brain damage.’ He said, ‘Yeah, do whatever you want.’ So I made up a much, much darker backstory that I thought could justify him being that way.”

Well, it certainly is darker. But is it sensical? Ultimately, it’s just Hamill’s head canon, so it really doesn’t matter. Despite his reservations and need to make up his own reasoning for Luke’s behavior in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Hamill committed to the role. “I told him [Johnson] this — despite the fact that I disagree with your choices for Luke, I’m going to do everything within my power to make your screenplay work as best as I can.” And that’s exactly what Hamill did. We guess every actor and fan can imagine whatever it is they want for the story.

That said, we’re still processing that take. It almost feels like it was created by Joker. However, we feel about Hamill’s vision of death and suicide in Star Wars though, we do feel sad that he recently shared his time as Luke was up. Who will provide us with the twisted headcanons now?