Did you know that Luke Skywalker had a wife and child? According to Mark Hamill, the Jedi has a tragic backstory that never made it to screen.
The “Star Wars” actor went on NPR’s “Bullseye With Jesse Thorn” as part of a press tour for Mike Flanagan’s latest Stephen King adaptation, “The Life of Chuck.” On the podcast, the pair discussed Luke Skywalker’s role in “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” — a version of the character Hamill famously struggled to get behind.
The original trilogy actor told Thorn that he created a backstory for Luke that would help him understand the character’s actions in the eighth film of the Skywalker Saga. Let’s just hope it isn’t canon.
“I said, ‘Can I make up my own backstory of why he is the way he is? I don’t want to just say, you know, that I have bumped and I have brain damage,’” Hamill said of a conversation with “The Last Jedi” director Rian Johnson. “He said, ‘Yeah, do whatever you want.’ So I made up a much, much darker backstory that I thought could justify him being that way.”
Darker is one word for it. You can watch the interview below:
The backstory goes like this: Before cutting himself off from the Force, Luke Skywalker gets married. He and his wife then have a child. When the child is still a toddler, it “picks up an unattended lightsaber, pushes the button and is killed instantly.” Luke’s wife, overcome by grief, kills herself in turn.
It’s not quite the family-friendly tone George Lucas built the franchise on.
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Hamill said he drew inspiration for the origin from stories of families who leave guns unattended around children in the United States. It’s a tragically common occurrence — in 2025 alone, everytownresearch.org reports 87 unintentional shootings by children. In 2023, this number surpassed 400.
“That resonated with me so deeply,” Hamill said. “But he [Johnson] didn’t have the time to tell a backstory like that, I’m guessing.”
Despite receiving broad critical acclaim, “The Last Jedi” remains the most divisive “Star Wars” movie. To this day, the 2017 film often finds itself at the center of renewed discourse on social media. The film can be viewed as a flashpoint moment for culture war debates over franchise entertainment.
When he first received Johnson’s script, Hamill struggled with his role in the film. “The Last Jedi” sees Luke abandon the Force after Kylo Ren razes his temple of students for his New Jedi Order. At one point, Luke considers killing a young Ben Solo in his sleep after seeing a vision of Kylo Ren’s campaign of terror across the galaxy.
Hamill praised Johnson as a director, saying he should have kept a tighter lid on his concerns with the project.
“I’ve heard comments from fans who think that I somehow dislike Rian Johnson,” Hamill said. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”
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