Mark Hamill disagrees with some of the sequel trilogy and it’s OK

Mark Hamill offered his opinions on the Star Wars sequel trilogy that gained plenty of headlines, but fans should slow down a bit because context is key.

Mark Hamill is not one to shy away from things. The Star Wars star is outspoken, gregarious and very funny. Hamill recognizes all of this even when his words get him into trouble.

In a recent interview with Den of Geek, Hamill spoke about his loudmouth and his feelings toward the sequel trilogy. But like many of these interviews, it’s best to be taken into context.

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The first thing to note is just how close Hamill is to Star Wars. He IS Star Wars.

The episodic movies have been dubbed the Skywalker Saga with Luke Skywalker as the central character. Hamill is going to be invested in the movies more than most people in ways even fans cannot comprehend..

And even though some of his words may rankle execs at Disney or flame some of the more outspoken segment of Star Wars fans, I wouldn’t want it any other way. Hamill could have easily done the role and never want to see a lightsaber again.

He could have shunned that part of him and not care how the sequel trilogy wound up. Instead, there is an utterly passionate person who cared about everything – but he admittedly cared from a selfish point of view.

It’s not a bad thing. It’s how we all are. We look at situations at how they are best for us and how our roles will be in those situations. When it comes to the sequel trilogy, Hamill did the same thing.

Look, he didn’t hate the sequel trilogy. He didn’t agree with everything either, but who did?

He told Den of Geek:

"But I have a tendency just to talk and talk and talk, and you can cherrypick. You know, I’ll be reading something, and say, “What moron said this?”, and then realise, “Oh, it’s me.” They can take selective comments you’ve made out of context and use it to support their argument: “See, Mark hated Star Wars!” “Did I?”"

Right there, that quote you just read is exactly what happened. Headlines swarmed over the last 24 hours of Hamill’s distaste for Star Wars. He lets the brass at LucasFilm know he wasn’t happy.

But as Hamill noted, he could say those things because he’s Luke Skywalker. He could say things most others can’t even when he is viewing it from a narrow lens.

Here are some of the comments that caught the attention of Star Wars fans:

On the cadence of Star Wars movie releases:

"‘In our day, it was three years apart. Now they’re two years apart, with an independent movie (Rogue One, Solo) in between. I say to the executives at Disney, “Really? Han Solo five months after our movie? Give it a rest!” They say, well, we have to keep the schedule clear for Mary Poppins.’ He feigns outrage. ‘But I can be mouthy, because you know, what are they gonna do, fire me?’"

On Han Solo’s death:

"‘I just thought, Luke’s never going to see his best friend again. You look at it in a self-centred way. I said that it was a big mistake that those three people would never reunite in any way. I guess I was wrong, because nobody seems to care! I have to stipulate that I care, but it didn’t really seem to affect the larger audience. Luke, Han and Leia will never be together again, and I’ll probably never get to work with Harrison again."

On Luke Skywalker’s death:

"Then the second thing was that they killed me off. I thought: oh, okay, you should push my death off to the last one. That’s what I was hoping when I came back: no cameos and a run-of-the-trilogy contract. Did I get any of those things? Because as far as I’m concerned, the end of VII is really the beginning of VIII. I got one movie! They totally hornswoggled (tricked) me.’"

While the quotes are juicy and worthy of headlines, it should still be seen as Hamill looking at the overall story from his personal point of view – the larger story is not considered. He’s not looking at it from a storytelling aspect, but how he is affected from the decisions.

Yeah, we were all upset when Kylo Ren murdered his father. We were sad when Luke Skywaler gave everything he had to help his General Leia and the remainder of the Resistance. But there is a bigger story being told here and that’s the focus of the sequel trilogy.

LucasFilm couldn’t do the sequel trilogy without Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher. They were the connector for us fans, but there also needs to be the jump to new characters for the next generation.

Unfortunately, that involved the death of some of our beloved characters.

I hope Mark Hamill never stops talking. He’s a breath of fresh air. I like hearing his opinions because I think it’s interesting to see where Hamill’s thoughts are when it comes to certain roles.

But that doesn’t mean I necessarily agree with what he says or even think he is right. Some of his points are valid and I can see why he would disagrees with aspects of the story, but I think it’s also important for it to be discussed.

Because while Hamill may not agree, it didn’t seem he ever flamed anyone or put them down. He didn’t call people names or harass them over his disagreements. Perhaps some fans should follows his example.

What did you think of Mark Hamill’s comment? Agree or disagree? Let us know in the comments.