Star Wars' Luke Skywalker reveals horrifying 'real' reason he exiled himself in The Last Jedi

The Last Jedi is a controversial film; one that people either love or hate.

I’m in the former camp. Personally, I’m all for the fact that it did away with predictable tropes, bringing us something new and exciting.

Perhaps one of the film’s most divisive elements is the state in which we found Luke Skywalker.

This aged version of the character was a far cry from the hopeful optimist we met back in A New Hope.

The Last Jedi’s Luke is essentially a hermit, living in solitude on Ahch-To where he’s turned his back on the Jedi.

Why? Well, the film leads us to believe that Luke feels responsible for Ben Solo’s actions with regards to burning down the new Jedi Temple and destroying Luke’s rebuilt Jedi Order.

Actor Mark Hamill had something else in mind though, particularly as he disagreed with director Rian Johnson’s version of events.

In Hamill’s head canon, Luke left for Ahch-To for a much darker reason.

Appearing on the Bullseye with Jesse Thorn podcast, Hamill explained that he played Luke as if his exile was brought about by “the love of a woman” and the subsequent loss of that love.

“I thought, what could make someone give up a devotion to what is basically a religious entity, to give up being a Jedi. Well, the love of a woman,” he began.

“So he falls in love with a woman. He gives up being a Jedi. They have a child together. At some point the child, as a toddler, picks up an unattended lightsaber, pushes the button and is killed instantly,” he continued.

“The wife is so full of grief, she kills herself.”

It certainly fits. You can see why Luke under those conditions would want to shun all that is familiar to start a new life, particularly one that is devoid of any sense of his past.

Simultaneously though, you can see why that’s a tad too dark for Star Wars’ family-friendly mainline films.

The same throughline is there, however, compared to what Rian Johnson depicted.

Luke losing a son isn’t all that different from Luke feeling responsible for the ‘loss’ and turning to the dark side of Han and Leia’s.

We may not have seen this story play out on screen, but it’s interesting to get insight into Mark’s headspace during filming.