With the countdown continuing towardsStar Wars: The Last Jedi, many fans will likely be revisiting the 2015 blockbusterStar Wars: The Force Awakensagain, and as it turns out, the ending was originally much different. During a recent interview with Empire for their jam-packedStar Wars: The Last Jediissue, Mark Hamill (Luke SKywalker) revealed in a new interview that the original ending was scrapped because it didn’t match up to Rian Johnson’s story inStar Wars: The Last Jedi. Here’s what Mark Hamill had to say below.
“There was something that happened at the end of The Force Awakens when I’m standing on the cliff. I called Rian in a panic because it was all wrong. He said, ‘It’s okay, I spoke to J.J. and he’s taking that scene out.’ It just didn’t match up with what Rian had written.”
We learned back in May thatJ.J. Abrams changed The Force Awakens endingat the request of Rian Johnson, who wanted R2-D2 to travel with Rey toAhch-To, instead of BB-8, who Rian Johnson wanted to stay behind with the Resistance. Still, it doesn’t seem like this is the change Mark Hamill is referring to, since we don’t see R2-D2 on the cliff with Rey, but it’s possible that, in the earlier version of this scene, Rey is joined by both Chewbacca and BB-8 as she hikes up the steep path on her way to meet Luke Skywalker for the first time. Mark Hamill didn’t elaborate about what was “all wrong” with the ending J.J. Abrams had originally envisioned for the movie.
Mark Hamill revealed in May that he would have liked to see Luke Skywalker arrive towards the end to witness the death of his old friend Han Solo (Harrison Ford), alongside Rey, Finn andChewbacca, after his sister Leia had tried to contact him. That would have ruined the big dramatic ending, where we see Luke Skywalker for the first time in the final moments of the movie, when Rey arrives on Ahch-To. Many fans had hoped to see much more of Luke Skywalker inThe Force Awakens, but they’ll be seeing much more of Luke inStar Wars: The Last Jedi.
After all was said and done,Star Wars: The Force Awakenswas a massive box office hit, setting records for biggest opening weekend ($247.9 million) and overall domestic gross ($936.6 million) that will be incredibly hard to break. Even the highly-anticipatedStar Wars: The Last Jediisn’t expected to break either of those records, withThe Last Jedi opening weekendexpected to top out at $200 million, which would easily beatBeauty and the Beast($174.7 million) as the highest opening weekend of the year, but will fall quite short ofThe Force Awakens' mark. This Mark Hamill interview comes from the latest print edition ofEmpire Magazine, as we continue the countdown towardsStar Wars: The Last Jedi.
