Star Wars actor Mark Hamill has suggested that there is no reason why his character Luke Skywalker couldn’t be gay.
Hamill played Skywalker in the original Star Wars trilogy from 1977 to 1983, reprising the role for 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens. He recently spoke to The Sun after Force Awakens director JJ Abrams said that he “would love” for gay characters to join the movie franchise.
“I just read online that JJ is very much open to that,” Hamill said. “In the old days, you would get fan mail. But now fans are writing and asking all these questions: ‘I’m bullied in school… I’m afraid to come out.'”
He added: “They say to me: ‘Could Luke be gay?’ I’d say it is meant to be interpreted by the viewer. If you think Luke is gay, of course he is. You should not be ashamed of it. Judge Luke by his character, not by who he loves.”
GettyJJ Abrams cast a female protagonist and two non-white male leads in Daisy Ridley, John Boyega and Oscar Isaac respectively. He recently said that it would be “insanely narrow-minded” to think there’s no homosexual character in the Star Wars world.
“When I talk about inclusivity, it’s not excluding gay characters, it’s about inclusivity, so of course,” he said. “”To me the fun of Star Wars is exploring the possibilities, so it seems insanely narrow-minded to say that there wouldn’t be a homosexual character in that world”.
Fans of Star Wars have already started speculating that new characters Finn and Poe – played by Boyega and Isaac are having a homosexual relationship.
Bodega recently told Radio Times that it wouldn’t be impossible, revealing: “As far as I’m concerned, when JJ sat us down to go through the script, it was a bromance. But now I’m learning what Mark Hamill said before when he didn’t know that Darth Vader was Luke’s father: you never know what they’re going to pull.”
“I’m looking at the director Rian [Johnson] closely so he can get me involved early, so I can prepare myself. So who knows?” Rian Johnson will direct the upcoming Episode VIII, which is currently in production.