Mark Hamill Just Confirmed a Wild Rumor About Star Wars: The Force Awakens
The Force Awakens originally had a Mark Hamill opening sequence that was too much for Star Wars.
This article is more than 2 years old
With it is a world-building franchise like Star Wars, it is obvious that many plotlines and scenes which were initially planned never made it to finished projects so as ensure a seamless flow. So, there are many rumors out there about certain scenes in Star War films that were supposed to play out much differently than they did on screen and one such rumor was that Star Wars: The Force Awakens almost began with a rather gory Mark Hamill cameo.
In The Force Awakens, while Mark Hamill’s Luke Skywalker is mentioned many times, he doesn’t appear until the closing minutes of the film where we see Rey meeting up with him on the planet Ahch-To and presenting him with his father’s lightsaber. But there had been rumors that the initial idea was to link the film directly to Empire Strikes Back by referring to the scene where Darth Vader cuts off Luke’s hand during their lightsaber duel in Cloud City. Thus the original script started with Luke’s severed hand, still holding his lightsaber, floating through space.
This little nugget of information was recently shared by the Twitter page UberFacts, and this time, Mark Hamill amped up its status from being a mere rumor to that of a fact by confirming that it is indeed how The Force Awakens was originally supposed to open. He even explained the supposed-to-be scene in detail: the plan was to show his hand hurtling through space as its flesh and bone burned away after which the lightsaber gets impaled on the surface of an unknown planet. But J.J. Abrams never went ahead with this particular sequence probably because the scene was not only unnecessary but also too gory by Star Wars standards.
But while the scene never became a part of the theatrical release, it does seem to incorporate into the storyline off-screen as it could explain how Luke’s lightsaber came into Maz Kanata’s possession who kept the weapon hidden in her castle on Takodana. Anyway, even though Mark Hamill’s severed hand never made it into The Force Awakens, he continues to be a big part of the Star Wars franchise. He recently rejoined the galaxy far, far away when he appeared in the finale episode of The Mandalorian season two.
Mark Hamill’s cameo in the episode was perhaps the best-kept secret in the Star Wars universe where secrets leaking out is a common occurrence. Initially, his name did crop up after Grogu used the Force to connect with an anonymous Jedi on the planet Tython. Many theorized that given the time period The Mandalorian is set in, the mystery Jedi could be Luke Skywalker. But after many years where Hamill strongly denied any desire to ever reprise his most iconic role, it was expected that if Luke did show up as the much-awaited Jedi master for Baby Yoda another actor would be playing the role. So, when in the closing minutes of The Mandalorian season two a familiar X-Wing zoomed in and a Jedi appeared with a silver gloved hand holding a green lightsaber, no one was expecting a digitally de-aged Mark Hamill making a comeback as Luke Skywalker.
It is not been confirmed yet if Mark Hamill will return as Luke Skywalker in Season 3 of the Disney+ series but as Grogu is definitely reuniting with Mando soon, we can expect the reappearance of the legendary Jedi master as well.
