In the latest article for their “The Force Awakens” coverage, Entertainment Weekly got the chance to ask J.J. Abrams the question that’s on every “Star Wars” fan’s mind. Where is Luke Skywalker?
While of course J.J. didn’t definitively answer that question, he and John Boyega did talk a little bit about how Luke’s legacy has been viewed in the galaxy 32 years after “Return of the Jedi.” In particular for Rey and Finn.
Here’s a portion of what J.J. and John Boyega had to say about Luke in the article posted on EW.com:
“No one forgot about him!” director J.J. Abrams promises. “We were hoping people would care, but there are a lot of things that are not on the poster, as busy as the poster is. Certainly Luke is a very important aspect of the story.”
“It was the thing that struck me the hardest, which was the idea that doing a story that took place nearly 40 years after Jedi meant that there would be a generation for whom Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Leia would be as good as myth. They’d be as old and as mythic as the tale of King Arthur. They would be characters who they may have heard of, but maybe not. They’d be characters who they might believe existed, or just sounded like a fairy tale.”
“To someone who is living alone and struggling without a formal education or support system, who knows what that person in the literal middle of nowhere would have ever heard about any of these things, or would ever know, and how much that person would have to infer and piece together on their own. So the idea that someone like that would begin to learn that the Jedi were real, and that the Force exists, and that there’s a power in the universe that sounds fanciful but is actually possible, was an incredibly intriguing notion.”
“For Finn, he’s been raised from the ashes of the Empire,” says Boyega. “He’s been taught about Luke Skywalker, he knows about his history. For him it’s like joining the army and then learning about one of the great enemies of your country. It has that effect on him. But in terms of the Force, and the magical stuff that happens, that is the point where Finn kind of questions what is what. What is the Force, what part does Luke Skywalker play in all of this?”
Nothing too revealing in the article, but I do like the idea that Han, Luke and Leia are almost mythical characters in “The Force Awakens” era. And I really love how Finn has been trained by the First Order to view Luke as a great enemy.
Be sure to check out the full article over at EW.com, where while he really doesn’t say much, Mark Hamill shares his thoughts on Luke, and he and J.J. talk about the “Dinner For Five” show they did ten years ago, where Mark gave an idea how Luke would be after “Return of the Jedi,” and if that ended up playing a factor in the development of Luke’s story in “The Force Awakens”!
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