Mark Hamill Says Star Wars 7 May Have Less Luke, Leia, And Han Than You Thought

By Brent McKnight | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

Star WarsOdds are, if you read this site on any kind of regular basis, you’re a Star Wars fan to some degree and are probably excited for the upcoming The Force Awakens, at least a little bit. I sure am going out on a limb, aren’t I? Part of the reason you’re looking forward to this is likely because we know that we’ll get to see some of our returning favorites from the franchise, especially Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Han Solo. While we’re stoked to see some familiar faces, we don’t really know how much we’ll be seeing them, and one cast member indicates that it might not be all that much.

As usual, there are possible spoilers for Star Wars: The Force Awakens beyond this point, so tread carefully.

Mark Hamill recently spoke to the Hero Complex, specifically about his role in Kingsman: The Secret Service and appearing as the Trickster on The Flash, but, as tends to do when he talks to anyone, the subject of Star Wars came up. Discussing his role, he said:

I would have been completely okay with it not including us, but I do think having the original cast members there gives it a sense of continuity and scope. But mind you, it’s really about the new generation, it’s not about us.

Looking at this statement it certainly sounds like while they’re all super involved on the surface and that they aren’t going to be the main emphasis. At one point, early on, we heard reports that Han’s part was big enough that some considered him a “co-lead,” but since then that talk has quieted down some and I don’t think many of us expected them to be in every scene.

We’re going to get way more potentially spoiler heavy now, so do what you must.

From what we’ve heard recently, the focus definitely sounds like it is more on the new kids rather than the older generation. The other day there were a bunch of rumors about where Luke is and his appearance in The Force Awakens. It basically said that he’s in hiding, guarding something sinister, trying to keep it out of evil hands. If he’s in hiding, he probably doesn’t figure too prominently in the foreground action.

We also heard that Daisy Ridley’s character, Rey, is on a similar quest to prevent nefarious forces from getting their hands on a destructive power, and that her dad doesn’t like her being involved. Oh yeah, her dad is apparently none other than Han Solo. From this report, it appears that the younger members of the Solo clan will be more involved in the core story, though Han will likely pop up from time to time.

And for Leia, yet another report (Disney’s war on leaks is obviously doing a bang up job) indicates that the Hutts may appear in The Force Awakens and that, as a powerful politician, she could meet with this delegation. Like Luke and Han, that doesn’t make it sound like she’s a huge part of plot.

The closer we get to the December 18 release date, the more it appears like the returning stars serve more as a connective tissue linking Star Wars: The Force Awakens to the original trilogy rather than as the primary players. As usual, we’ll have to wait and see exactly how everything comes together, but I suspect most of us will be okay with that as long as they tell a good story and the new characters are worth our time. At this point I think most of us primarily just want to see a good movie.