Luke Skywalker’s original name in Star Wars might surprise you

When you think of Star Wars, the first character that likely comes to mind is Luke Skywalker. An icon in a galaxy far, far away, the Jedi Master played by Mark Hamill is a pop-culture legend and a familiar face to people all around the world, regardless if you’ve seen the movies or not. Introduced in the first film, A New Hope, as the protagonist to lead the Skywalker Saga, Luke Skywalker is Star Wars.

While there’s tons of lore behind the franchise, including the animated series which have introduced us to new people, creatures, and historical events, the son of Darth Vader is without a doubt the most popular character in Star Wars. And his name? It’s just perfect. So the fact that Luke Skywalker was once named something else is almost unbelievable. We can thank George Lucas for deciding to switch up Luke’s last name before the first movie came out.

So what was Luke Skywalker’s original name? Well, his first name was always the same, but his last name was once a bit more intense. We almost got to know this famous Jedi as Luke Starkiller.

Why did George Lucas change Luke Skywalker’s name?

So why was it decided to make the change from Luke Starkiller to Luke Skywalker? Well, apart from the fact that Skywalker sounds so much better, Lucas apparently thought the original last name was too aggressive. According to Screen Rant, the name Starkiller was a bit topical at the time, and for a bad reason, as the Charles Manson murders were still fresh on the public’s minds when the first Star Wars movie was being written.

Having the “killer” part of the name could’ve been in bad taste at the time, so Lucas tossed it and went with Skywalker. According to Yahoo! Entertainment, the Star Wars filmmaker explained the decision in The Making of Star Wars, stating:

"“That I did because I felt a lot of people were confusing him with someone like Charles Manson. It had very unpleasant connotations.”"

Mark Hamill has frequently poked fun at the name change, even referencing it recently in a tweet while responding to a fan and using the hashtag “#MayTheNameChangeBeWithYou.”

As you can probably tell, I love the name Luke Skywalker and think it was the best decision to make the update. But how do you feel? Would you have rather watched Luke Starkiller lead the three Star Wars trilogies? Let us know in the comments below!