Lucasfilm
Luke Skywalker’s death in Star Wars: The Last Jedi will likely continue to be a contentious point among fans for quite some time. But while fans have debated just what killed Mark Hamill’s character and if that scene even should have happened, Hamill himself has provided his own take on Luke’s death, and the Star Wars Visual Dictionary confirmed exactly what caused Luke to die.
Hamill Said Luke Died from Using The Force After a Long Absence From It
Hamill took to Twitter to share exactly his character died and provide his own commentary. Some fans still debate on whether or not he was being serious, based on the hashtags he included.
He wrote: “THE FORCE KILLED LUKE. You have to acknowledge the irony in his fate.
Almost like an addict that kicked his habit cold-turkey, remained clean for decades, only to re-use just once & then, tragically, overdoses. #SadSkywalker #ForceFatality #JediJunkie”
One person commented: “Killed? Sounds like a big reveal.”
Others said that they felt Luke Skywalker’s death was more akin to Obi-Wan Kenobi’s, when he accepted his purpose and yielded to the Force.
It’s worth noting that some people believe Hamill was joking in his tweet, since he added hashtags like #SadSkywalker and #JediJunkie. You can decide for yourself if he was serious about his assessment or not.
Here’s a quick refresher on what happened to Luke.
In the movie, Luke Skywalker died when he used the Force to project himself into a battle with Kylo Ren in order to give Leia and other Resistance fighters a chance to escape. Luke had sworn off the Force prior to this, upset over how he felt he had failed Ben Solo. But a talk with Yoda helped him realize that failure is a great teacher, and he needed to help the Jedi evolve.
Luke Force-projected himself into a fight with Kylo Ren, who only realized the trick after stabbing Luke with his lightsaber. The rebels were able to escape, and Luke vanished.
He returned in The Rise of Skywalker as a Force ghost to help Rey in her time of need after she fled to Ahch-To and planned to end her days in exile. He encouraged her to confront Palpatine and destroy the Sith.
Hamill has discussed his opinions about Luke’s death in other mediums besides Twitter. In an interview with Den of Geek in March 2019, after he shared the tweet above, Hamill said that he had thought his character’s death should be saved for the last movie, but it didn’t happen.
In an interview with IGN, Hamill shared that George Lucas was going to ultimately kill Luke Skywalker too, but not until Episode IX.
He said: “I happen to know that George didn’t kill Luke until the end of 9, after he trained Leia. Which is another thread that was never played upon.”
The Visual Dictionary Provided More Details about Luke’s Cause of Death
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker — The Visual Dictionary provided a few more details and conclusory evidence about what happened to Luke and what caused his death, Looper reported.
The resource reported that Luke poured “his living Force presence into the all-encompassing cosmic Force.”
The Dictionary describes Luke’s projection this way:
In truth, Luke’s presence exists only in the Force, a projection through a Fallanassi technique chronicled by ancient Masters in the sacred texts as Similfuturus. This discipline requires extreme concentration and focus, as Luke essentially pours his living Force presence into the all-encompassing cosmic Force, bridging incredible distances. The transition is so complete that Luke gives his all into the Force, finding serenity in this final mortal moments and becoming one with the great beyond.
In commenting on Luke’s death, director Rian Johnson told Comicbook.com: “I don’t want to get too explicit, because I like people being able to have their own interpretations, but I think definitely the act of what he does at the end literally just takes everything out of him. That’s a huge thing. Also … he’s having his final act be something of myth-making in a way.”
But although he didn’t want to get too detailed about Luke’s death, the Visual Dictionary later did just that.
READ NEXT: How Cosplays Helped Land Fans Roles on The Mandalorian
