George Lucas Had A Hand At The Last Jedi’s Bitter And Jaded Luke Skywalker

Warning: This article contains a few spoilers for Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi might be enjoying both commercial and critical success, however, the film has also managed to divide the Star Wars fan base into two with a quite a number of fans angrily protesting against the film.

Not only the traditional fanboys and fangirls dislike the way the film subverts fan expectations, they also hate how writer/director Rian Johnson turned the classic hero Luke into a bitter and jaded hermit hiding up in Ahch-To.

What they don't know is that George Lucas' ideas for The Last Jedi were pretty much more or less the same.

According to The Art of Star Wars: The Last Jedi (via Slash Film), Johnson's film used a lot of the concepts George Lucas originally had in mind for Episode VII – specifically the story of an aged and broken version of Luke training a young Kira (which Lucasfilm later renamed Rey). Apparently, Lucas had been in attendance during the first creative meetings for Episode IX in Skywalker Ranch back in January 2013.

Early designs for this broken and bitter Luke were pretty close to the design fans got in The Last Jedi, though some of the early concept art has Luke looking more like a Buddhist monk than a Jedi master. Rey's look didn't stray too far from Kira's concept art either.

However, while these concepts designs are all fine and well, Lucas' biggest contribution to the film was the story of Luke and Rey itself.

"[Luke] always had this potential dark side within him, being that his father was Darth Vader," Lucasfilm executive creative director Doug Chiang explained. "So he is really struggling with that. He ended up secluding himself in this Jedi temple on a new planet, and he's just there meditating, reassessing his whole life. Gradually, over the arc of the movie, he rediscovers his vitality and comes back to himself."

Guess fans can no longer complain that Disney's ruining Star Wars now that we know that Lucas also had a hand in creating the broken version of Luke.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi is currently screening in cinemas.

Read: Lucasfilm Publishes Official Recipe For Luke Skywalker's Green Milk In Star Wars: The Last Jedi