Star Wars: The Last Jedi is finally – finally! – screening across theaters near and far, and it certainly hasn’t taken long for the Lucasfilm sequel to make a huge dent at the global box office.
How big, you ask? Try $450 million, with $220m of that grand total coming from domestic markets – just shy of The Force Awakens, which broke records left, right and center on its journey to $248m in 2015. Nevertheless, it’s fair to say that The Last Jedi is currently the biggest movie in the world and maybe – just maybe – the biggest movie of 2017.
It’ll continue to dominate the box office long into 2018, and with scores of spoiler specials and other reaction pieces already doing the rounds online, the Internet has transformed into a precarious minefield for those Star Wars fans who have yet to take the plunge and see The Last Jedi with their own two eyes.
That spoiler-filled discussion continues today courtesy of Entertainment Weekly, who spoke to Mark Hamill about Luke Skywalker’s powerful and somewhat controversial arc. And fair warning: the following quote strays far, far into spoiler territory, as Hamill gives his own candid verdict on Luke’s story.
As a matter of fact, the actor told EW that he was originally “terrified” and somewhat hesitant about Rian Johnson’s story, as it signaled the end of his farm-boy-turned-Jedi.
I had huge hesitance. I was terrified. It was a growing sense of dread when I realized this was going to make sense in that chapter… It was not like I wrote the script and dropped it on their desk. It was very important to me that I was collaborating with the folks at Lucasfilm from the word go. I moved to San Francisco for a few months and would go in a few times a week to keep them up to date, spewing my ideas out, especially the big ones.
But if Luke Skywalker was introduced as a disheveled curmudgeon at the outset, Hamill’s hero got his due when The Last Jedi touched down on Crait. Pushed into a corner by the invading First Order, the Resistance was ostensibly on its last legs, and it was only when Luke’s Force projection arrived on the scene that they were able to escape.
Still, even after such a powerful send-off, Hamill admitted that he’s still coming to terms with Luke’s death.
Well, I’m still in denial. I just think he transported somewhere else… The first thing I said was, ‘Can’t you wait and do this in Episode IX?’
In closing, Rian Johnson argued that Luke’s journey actually reached its conclusion in Return of the Jedi, and this encore was really about handing over the torch to the next generation.
I think the hero’s journey of Luke Skywalker concluded in Return of the Jedi. This [trilogy] is the hero’s journey of Rey, and Finn, and Poe. The [ongoing] story of Luke is one that has to play in tandem with that of Rey.
If it’s more coverage you’re after, look no further than our official review, which deemed Star Wars: The Last Jedi to be a “striking, stunning, visually hypnotizing” thrill ride.