“But I was going into Tosche Station to pick up some power converters!”
It’s not a line that has aged particularly well, is it? Back when Star Wars: A New Hope was playing in theaters, and Luke Skywalker was little more than a nobody, Mark Hamill’s whiny Tatooine farmboy uttered a phrase that would enter film history for all the wrong reasons.
Upon acquiring two new droids (C-3PO and R2-D2) from Jawa traders, the teenage Luke is told to brush up their chrome plating before dinner, and is none too pleased. He then moans about his predicament to his uncle Owen Lars, who tells the young Skywalker that he can “waste time with your friends when your chores are done.”
But as Mark Hamill admits to Entertainment Weekly, portraying Luke to be a whiny brat was no accident:
That’s funny you mention the Tosche Station. I thought we might only be able to make the first film, because the second and third parts were predicated on how well the first one did. So I said, I’m going to have to make this as juvenile as I can so there’s room for growth. And I sort of wanted to make it sound like I had four sisters and two brothers when you’d be in the car and they’d say things like, ‘You said we could go to the mall.’ So I wanted to give that flavor.
And to his credit, Hamill nailed that little character moment, as it only emphasizes the extraordinary arc of Luke Skywalker – from selfish moisture farmer to one of the most powerful Jedi Masters, well, ever.
Fast forward to The Last Jedi, and Luke’s story is all but complete, after Mark Hamill’s hero gave his life in order to save the Resistance from the clutches of the First Order and their newfound Supreme Leader, Kylo Ren. Of course, there’s always a chance his character will return via Force projection in Star Wars: Episode IX, which is expected to close out the Skywalker Saga once and for all in 2019, but only time will tell if that’s the case.
