Mark Hamill was once under the impression that Han Solo was the main character of Star Wars.
Recounting the audition process he undertook for the original 1977 movie, Hamill, who will be returning once again for this year’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi, once believed that Han Solo was the film’s main character and that Luke would be his sidekick.
It was only after accepting the part and finally receiving the script that he learned that he would be starring in the film as Luke Skywalker. Apparently it was the film’s initial title that gave it away, as he explains in a recent interview with StarWars.com.
“But when I finally got the part and they said they were sending the script over, I was living by myself in a one-bedroom on the beach in Malibu. It was before I was married. And I get the script and I sit down, and I’ll never forget the chair I was sitting in, facing the ocean. I open the title page and it says, ‘The Adventures of Luke Starkiller, as Taken from the Journal of the Whills, Saga Number One: The Star Wars.’ And I thought, ‘Wait a second…’ Because when I tested, I figured Harrison’s a leading man. So I thought, ‘I’m playing his sidekick, right?’ Reading it, I’m going, ‘Wait a second. Wasn’t I reading for Luke Starkiller? This can’t be right.’ Anyway, I started reading it and you can imagine. I mean, ‘A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.’ Then you read the crawl and you’re right in the action. It’s just such an economical example of storytelling.”
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Originally published September 26, 2017. Updated April 16, 2018.
