In a recent interview, Luke Skywalker actor Mark Hamill revealed one thing he hated about working on the original Star Wars movie. Hamill is coming up on 50 years since they debuted the iconic sci-fi franchise on the big screen in 1977. While it may not have seemed like it at the time, Hamill and the rest of the Star Wars: A New Hope creative team would be creating a seminal work of blockbuster filmmaking and chiseling its world and characters into the annals of Hollywood history.
However, it was not always that way. Luke Skywalker was, at one point, just a name on a page, and his journey of saving the galaxy from the villainous Empire was just a twinkle in creator George Lucas' eye. That means there were plenty of changes between the scribbles in Lucas' notebooks and what made it on-screen, some of which were not met with the best reception from those involved in making the first Star Wars movie.
Appearing on a recent episode of ITV's This Morning, Mark Hamill revealed there was one thing from his time working on Star Wars: Episode IV (aka the very first Star Wars movie), his character's name.
Hamill's iconic Jedi, Luke Skywalker, was previously going to be named Luke Starkiller in the original; however, it was changed mid-production, something Hamill was not a big fan of.
"We shot the scene, 'I'm Luke Starkiller, I'm here to rescue you'," Hamill lamented, talking about the iconic sequence in which his character saves Carrie Fisher's Princess Leia from her cell on the Death Star. He remembered coming in one day and the crew telling him they had changed the character's name to Luke Skywalker.
He said he "hated" the Skywalker name, thinking he had taken the impact out of the character:
"We shot the scene, 'I'm Luke Starkiller I'm here to rescue you.' I came back the next week and said, 'Why are we doing that scene again?' They said, 'Oh, they've changed your name.' I said, 'To what?' They said, 'To Skywalker.' Let's face it Luke could use a little macho-ing up. It sounded like Luke Flyswatter, I hated it."
Lucas reportedly made the change as he thought Starkiller had a negative connotation and did not think it was right for the hero of his star-faring story.
The Starkiller name has come back several times in the decades since A New Hope. The main character of the now out-of-canon Force Unleashed video game series donned the Starkiller name, and the Sequel Trilogy brought it back for Starkiller Base (the First Order's star system planet-sized weapon).
The original Luke Starkiller version of the character, as depicted in Ralph McQuarrie's concept art for the film, even made an appearance in 2022's LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga as paid DLC.
Star Wars: Episode IV—A New Hope is now streaming on Disney+. The original Star Wars movie follows Hamill's Luke Skywalker as he goes from meager moisture farmer to hero of the Rebellion, getting wrapped up in an intergalactic war and leading the charge against the villainous regime known as The Empire. A New Hope will return to theaters in April 2027 as part of the franchise's 50th anniversary.
Mark Hamill's Star Wars Future Explained
Even if Mark Hamill did not like the change from Starkiller to Skywalker, it was ultimately very likely for the best. Not to say one character's name would have been a make-or-break moment for the franchise, but there is a chance that with a name like Starkiller, Star Wars may not have taken off in the way it did.
That is not the reality we live in, though, as Hamill's Luke Skywalker character has become one of the most iconic heroes in Hollywood history.
In fact, with this next string of Star Wars movies (kicking off with next year's The Mandalorian & Grogu), it will be the first time Hamill's iconic Jedi is not assumed to be a part of the franchise in any meaningful way.
Luke became one with the Force in 2017's The Last Jedi, sacrificing himself so the Resistance could escape First Order forces bearing down on them on Skariff.
While Luke himself will likely not appear in any upcoming Star Wars movie, his legacy may still be felt in this new chapter in the long-running franchise.
Some have even speculated that, as a part of the upcoming Rey Skywalker New Jedi Order movie, the name Jedi may be abandoned for Skywalkers, using the term as a way to describe Force-sensitive individuals after the Sequel Trilogy.
