'Star Wars' Director J.J. Abrams On The Legend of Luke Skywalker

'Star Wars' Director J.J. Abrams On The Legend of Luke Skywalker

Reasons for the Jedi Knight Mystery

By Alex Burns

'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' releases worldwide net month ans we couldn't be more excited, the slow reveals of new characters and familiar faces from the original trilogy have really raised anticipation levels. One thing that's caused a bit of a stir, is the distinct lack of Mark Hamill's Luke Skywalker in any of the marketing for the picture. As such, fan theories and rampant speculation has ensued, resulting in some pretty out there ideas however in an interview with EW, director J.J. Abrams has talked about the reasons behind such extreme secrecy. Abrams explains that building a mythos around the exploits of Luke Skywalker in the original trilogy was part of the draw for taking on Episode VII in the first place.

“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,” Abrams says. “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.”

The whole victory over the Empire was only witnessed by a very small part of this galaxy far, far away and Abrams is keen to explain how these stories may have been passed on across different worlds to someone like Daisy Ridley's Rey on Jakku.

“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,” Abrams says. “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.”

Things are slightly different for John Boyega’s Finn who is well aware of who Luke Skywalker is and due to his Stormtrooper training, exactly why Skywalker needs to be taken down. We already know Finn will somehow end up working with the good guys, so part of the journey in the film is this realisation of the true legend of Luke Skywalker and how this will cause Finn to potentially change his attitudes.

“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?”

The lack of information regarding Luke Skywalker is a great way to build interest for the movie and also add a extra dash of excitement about his return. We definitely can't wait to see how it all pans out and as far as we're concerned the less we know the better!

Set approximately 30 years after the events of Return of the Jedi, new leads Finn, Rey, and Poe Dameron take charge in a new adventure across a galaxy far, far away and along the way they'll encounter your favourite characters returning from previous Star Wars films.

Directed by J.J. Abrams and featuring a cast including Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong'o, Andy Serkis, Domhnall Gleeson, Anthony Daniels, Peter Mayhew, and Max von Sydow, 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' is set for release December 18th 2015.