10 More Important Star Wars Details That Are Almost Never Mentioned

7. Luke Was Originally Planning To Join The Empire

Luke Skywalker Joins The Empire
Lucasfilm

Luke Skywalker may be the overarching hero of the Skywalker Saga and in every sense the true "Chosen One," but let's not gloss over the fact what Luke's original life plan actually was.

Early on in A New Hope, he tells Owen (Phil Brown) and Beru (Shelagh Fraser) that he's planning to submit an application to "the Academy," as is effectively implied to be the Imperial Academy.

As in, the military training program run by the damn Empire. Basically, before Luke's entire existence got upended, he was gonna join the Empire.

Now to be totally fair to Luke, it seems clear that he was only going to do the bare minimum level of service in order to get off Tattooine and go live his life further afield, but had things worked out a little differently, who knows? 

Could Luke have ended up a card-carrying member of the Imperial Military? Makes you think.

 
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Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.