Mark Hamill will be in J.J. Abrams‘ “Star Wars: Episode VII,” that much we do know. Quite how much, or what Luke Skywalker will be doing when we meet him next is another thing entirely, but Hamill certainly seems excited about the prospect of returning to a galaxy far, far away. The actor was at the CapeTown Film Fest recently and got talking all things “Star Wars” — from the original trilogy, to the prequels, to the upcoming trilogy.
On the three movies that made him famous, Hamill spoke with his tongue firmly in his cheek about ‘Return of the Jedi‘ in particular. Regarding the twist at the end of the tale that Leia is actually Luke’s sister, Hamill suggested as an alternative: “Why not have Boba Fett remove his helmet, shake out some beautiful hair, and…Oh my god, it’s mom! She’s been a double agent all these years!”
He also spoke about how he thought Luke was going to go dark in that particular installment, and he also defended the changes that George Lucas has made to the films over the years in various special editions, with his son Nathan apparently being one of the detractors. “He’ll say, ‘Oh my god, Dad, Greedo shoots first now!’ I’ll say, ‘Wait, wait, wait. Let’s put this in perspective: Who cares?’ ” Erm, that would be the people who will essentially be paying your wages in this new trilogy Mr. Hamill, so tread carefully.
That prompted Hamill to also launch into a defense of the prequel trilogy, proving that they’re not quite universally despised. “Jar Jar was supposed to be irritating! He’s irritating to the other characters in the movie!,” he said. “Those aren’t sorta the movies [my son] wanted them to be, they’re exactly the movies they wanted to make, and I’m not gonna criticize them at all.” What he did concede though was that there would have to be a different approach towards the balance of CGI and traditional effects in the new movies, which will please fans who found the prequels too CGI-heavy. “We’ve got to find a proper balance between CGI and old-school models.’ I want to have a more organic look so that we don’t get into ‘Roger Rabbit‘ territory,” he said, prompting cheers from the audience.
And on the topic of the new trilogy, Hamill of course didn’t divulge any new details but he did voice his approval at one fan’s desire to see him as a Jedi master this time. Hamill said he’d love Luke to be “heavy on the Jedi mind tricks, less on the lightsaber duels. That one in ‘Empire’ nearly killed me.” We think Hamill might just get his wish on that front too with the younger cast surely set to do most of the action…although can you really keep a lightsaber out of Luke Skywalker’s hands for a whole movie? [EW/Yahoo]