Back in 2005, Clerks creator and super-fanboy — Kevin Smith — hosted Dinner for Five on the Independant Film Channel, where two of the guests would have what I would call a serendipitous meeting. A young J.J. Abrams, and Mark Hamill were at the table, along with Stan Lee, and Jason Lee. Abrams, at the time, was the hot new television director/writer known for Alias and Lost, and Mark Hamill was enjoying retirement…I guess?
Anyway, In the video, at the 10:55 mark, Hamill talks about pitching the idea that Luke actually turn to the Dark Side of the Force, in Return of the Jedi. He also talks about begging George Lucas to allow him to use his lightsaber with one hand (like they did in the prequels), but at the time, Lucas was adamant that the lightsabers were heavy and could only be wielded with two hands. Check it out.
The interesting part of this whole video is that Mark Hamill sat across a table from J.J. Abrams and talked about Luke Skywalker being evil. There’s no way that either of them could have known that 10 years later, they would be making a sequel to Return of the Jedi, and that one of the predominant rumors is that Luke has in fact turned to the Dark Side…like I said, serendipitous, no?
Another neat part of Mark Hamill’s story, is that he envied Hayden Christensen’s Anakin Skywalker from Attack of the Clones, because George basically allowed him to have a haircut that Mark has lobbied for, before they filmed Return of the Jedi. In fact, after listening to what Hamill has to say, it seems like Lucas may have taken young Mark Hamill’s ideas, and used them in the prequels. Regardless, this is an awesome look into the beginnings of a great relationship between director and actor, one that I hope to see for at least two more films.