It appears that Mark Hamill had his return to the role of Luke Skywalker in the back of his mind for quite some time now. Check out this video from 1983 where Hamill discusses the future of Star Wars.
Despite not being involved with the Star Wars reboot, apparently George Lucas had something like this in mind during the shooting of the original Star Wars trilogy. While I’m glad that there is some new blood behind The Force Awakens, there’s no doubt that Lucas clearly had a giant story in mind when he first imagined the Star Wars universe. Sure, he had some missteps with the prequel trilogy and the remastered edition with his awkward CGI additions, but Lucas told a great story in the original trilogy, and he laid the foundation for quite the expansive universe of Star Wars stories, from expanded universe stuff, to the animated series The Clone Wars, and now to The Force Awakens. I think it’s kind of fantastic that all those years ago, Lucas had this sort of a series reboot in mind. I’m also glad that all those years ago, Mark Hamill was excited about the idea of reprising his role.
We don’t know a great deal about the actual plot of the film, but we should hopefully learn more in the coming months. However, it does seem that the discussion Hamill had with Lucas on being an older, wiser Jedi passing down his knowledge to an up-and-coming Jedi might be right on the money. Of course, there hasn’t been any official confirmation of the film’s plot, but you don’t have to go far on the internet to find some pretty fascinating plot speculation.
The trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, where Hamill will once again play Luke Skywalker, was released on Black Friday, and basically drove the Star Wars fandom into a complete frenzy. While we didn’t get to see Hamill (or Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher, for that matter), the 88-second teaser was broken down to the most minute of details. In the time since, there have already been plenty of fans who have made their own versions of the trailer, and there’s even been a bit of controversy surrounding the trailer--really, what’s a good teaser trailer release without a bit of conflict, am I right? Controversy aside, I think it’s safe to say that though it has been decades since A New Hope first hit the theaters, that the Star Wars fandom is more than ready for this new addition to the Star Wars story.
Sadly, we have over a year to wait for the new film to be released. Star Wars: The Force Awakens will be hitting theaters on December 18, 2015. Hopefully we can expect a ton of new content and new trailers--featuring the original cast---very soon.
