Mark Hamill on George Lucas’ original plan for the ending of Episode IX

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

SPOILERS for STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI. Before George Lucas sold Lucasfilm to Disney, he was already planning what would become the STAR WARS sequel trilogy, and Lucas' plot-outlines for those films were handed over as part of the deal. Although some elements of Lucas' ideas made it through, Disney ultimately chose to create brand-new stories and we're left with a bit of a mystery as to what might have been. While speaking with IGN, Mark Hamill shared a few details of what he knew of George Lucas's plans, including how Lucas would have ended STAR WARS: EPISODE IX.

"I happen to know that George didn’t kill Luke until the end of [Episode] 9, after he trained Leia. Which is another thread that was never played upon [in The Last Jedi]," Hamill said. Carrie Fisher's tragic passing coupled with Luke Skywalker becoming one with the Force at the close of STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI means that we're unlikely to see anything like Lucas' original idea in STAR WARS: EPISODE IX. Although, the thought of Luke's Force-ghost training Leia seems like it has potential. From what Mark Hamill said, it doesn't seem like George Lucas had a detailed script of how the sequel trilogy would shake down, but he did know the general beats of the whole trilogy, whereas Hamill likens Disney's approach to a bit of a relay race.

George had an overall arc – if he didn’t have all the details, he had sort of an overall feel for where the [sequel trilogy was] going – but this one’s more like a relay race. You run and hand the torch off to the next guy, he picks it up and goes. Ryan didn’t write what happens in 9 – he was going to hand it off to, originally, Colin Trevorrow and now J.J. […] It’s an ever-evolving, living, breathing thing. Whoever’s onboard gets to play with the life-size action figures that we all are.

STAR WARS: EPISODE IX will hit theaters on December 20, 2019.