Mark Hamill Is Wrong About Star Wars, And That’s A Good Thing

Recently, Mark Hamill told The Hollywood Reporter that he returned to the role of Luke Skywalker in The Mandalorian because of the creative team behind it. Specifically, he praised Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau, whom he thought were “speaking the same language” as George Lucas.

With respect to the Jedi Master, I have to disagree: Filoni and Favreau are nothing like Lucas, which is (ironically enough) a large part of why their Star Wars shows are so popular with fans.

Hamill claimed that Filoni and Favreau “get Star Wars” and are “speaking the same language that George did in a way that I questioned in the sequels.” That last part seems reminiscent of what Hamill has previously said about the Sequel Trilogy, especially regarding how the Luke Skywalker character was handled in The Last Jedi. But in a fun bit of cosmic irony, the sequels were very much in the same disappointing mold as Lucas’ prequels, and what fans like about shows like The Mandalorian (especially in its first season) is how much it deviated from the Lucas formula.

The Things You Hate About Disney Star Wars Were George Lucas’s Ideas

Let’s start with the Sequel Trilogy: while they certainly have their fans, the sequels had plot points that many audiences hated. For example, some hated the focus on Rey as the main new Jedi character, seeing this as some woke decision on the part of Disney. Others hated things like Luke Skywalker becoming disillusioned and going into exile, and countless fans hated the fact that this beloved Jedi Master unexpectedly died.

Here’s something that might blow your mind, though: these were literally all things George Lucas planned to include in his own unmade sequels! Fans can debate whether or not he would have done a better job than J.J. Abrams and Rian Johnson, but based on the excesses and general sloppiness of the prequels, I’m not so sure. At any rate, the fact remains that some of the most hated elements of the sequels were basically Lucas’ ideas, which goes to show how much those movies took after their franchise’s maker.

The Mandalorian Ruined Itself By Being More Lucas-like

As for The Mandalorian, it certainly has familiar Star Wars elements, including Stormtroopers, Mandos, and a little guy that looks like Yoda’s illegitimate kid. But in terms of themes and plots, it’s very distinct from most Star Wars movies because there’s little emphasis on Force users and, outside of Mark Hamill’s brief cameos, no focus on the Skywalker Clan. Instead, the first season of The Mandalorian (the one that won everyone over before the show fell off) focused mostly on Din Djarin and the Child going on cool road trips and getting into episodic misadventures.

And that’s what people loved about the show: its deviation from the George Lucas mode of storytelling that allowed The Mandalorian to ditch the franchise’s bloated idea of epic mythmaking to just focus on cool side stories in a galaxy far, far away. On top of that, the show actually got worse the more it leaned away from side stories and into Lucas-like tales, which is why Season 3 is the lowest-rated season on Rotten Tomatoes. This is the season that shifted the narrative focus to the Mandalorians taking back their homeworld, and while that’s a suitably epic story, the truth is the show was much better (according to critics and fans alike) when it was just about a cool gunslinger and his kid sidekick going on quests like characters in a space western video game.

So sorry, Mark Hamill, Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau aren’t speaking the same language as George Lucas, but that’s a good thing. After Lucas captured lightning in a bottle with the Original Trilogy, his prequels disappointed, and his sequel plans included the same plot beats that fans hated in the Disney era. More than anything else, this reveals a truth that would have been unthinkable to Star Wars fans in the ‘90s: the best thing for this popular franchise is to get more movies and TV shows by creators willing to do something new instead of simply biting Lucas’ style to ever-diminishing results.