Mark Hamill and the director of Star Wars 8 decipher the final sequence of Luke Skywalker

“I had a lot of hesitation. I was terrified,” Rian Johnson admitted shortly after the release of The Last Jedi.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi will return this evening on TMC. And this is the episode the most controversial of the entire sagathe one which caused the strongest reactions among fans of the George Lucas universe.

When it was released in December 2017, its director, Ryan Johnson, had been pushed to defend several script choices, as his twists had made the public react. Along with Mark Hamill, the historical interpreter of Luke Skywalker, he notably had to justify the last scene of this key character in the franchise. We share their explanations again, to wait until 9:25 p.m. and the rebroadcast of the blockbuster.

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Mark Hamill made a comeback in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. After a short appearance in The force awakensthe actor had his hour of glory, notably during his final confrontation against Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) on Crait, the salt planet where the Resistance is hiding.

Luke Skywalker showed his full power by using the Force to create a diversion, allowing his sister and her soldiers to escape. During the fight, Kylo Ren does not touch his opponent and realizes only too late that he is facing an astral projection of Luke who never left Ahch-To, the planet where the first Jedi lived. Exhausted from having used so much energy, the character of Mark Hamill ends up disappearing like Obi-Wan Kenobi in A new hope.

Ryan Johnson hesitated a lot before killing the hero of the original trilogy. “I had a lot of hesitation. I was terrified. I had a growing fear as I realized it was going to make sense in this chapter“, he declared to Entertainment Weekly.

Before making his decision, the director took the time to discuss it with Lucasfilm to be sure he was making the right choices.

“It's not like I wrote the script and dropped it on their desk, he explains. It was very important to me to collaborate with the people at Lucasfilm from the start. I moved to San Francisco for a few months and went to see them a few times a week to update them and bounce ideas off them, especially the most important ones.“

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At the beginning, Mark Hamill did not approve of his character's fate, and still has difficulty accepting it today.

“I'm still in denial, he admits. I just think he transported himself somewhere else. The first thing I said was to ask them to wait and do it in Episode IX.”

But for the filmmaker, Luke's journey was over as soon as Return of the Jediand it was necessary to refocus the story around the new heroes for the last episode of the trilogy.

“I think the hero's journey for Luke ended in Return of the Jedi, considers Johnson. This trilogy is about the journey of Rey, Finn and Poe. Luke's current story needs to be played in tandem with Rey's.”

However, the interpreter of Luke does not lose hope of making a final appearance in the last part: “I still cling to this line of dialogue where I say: 'We'll see you soon kid.' I can be in Episode IX! I might even bring the meals to the set to deal with them a little. (laughs)”

Regarding the astral projection sequence, fans could have noticed it immediately thanks to several clues according to the editor Bob Ducsay: “There are a lot of little things that can give you clues as to what's going on with Luke. It doesn't make a sound. Nothing falls on him. Kylo's lightsaber interacts with salt while Luke's does not.”

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