10 Movie Answers Given YEARS Later
7. Where Did Luke Skywalker's Severed Hand Go? - The Empire Strikes Back
The Question:
The Empire Strikes Back ends with Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) having his hand cut off by Darth Vader (David Prowse), losing not only his hand but his precious lightsaber in the process.
For 35 years the whereabouts of Luke's saber was unknown, though that mystery was cleared up in The Force Awakens when it was found to be in the custody of Maz Kanata (Lupita Nyong'o).
But if Luke's lightsaber was recovered, his hand must've been too, right? Well, what the hell happened to it?
The Answer:
This hasn't ever been answered within the movies, but the recent Star Wars: Darth Vader comic book series finally revealed the truth in its eleventh issue released last April, some 41 years after Luke's hand was chopped off and dropped through the Cloud City sky to parts unknown.
The issue, set shortly after Empire, features a scene where Darth Vader visits Palpatine on Exogol, and as he walks through Palpatine's lab we saw in The Rise of Skywalker, he chances upon a severed hand floating in what's presumably a bacta tank.
While the hand could theoretically belong to anyone, this just feels too pointed a reference to be anything but Luke's.
The wider implications of this are admittedly mind-boggling, with many fans suspecting that Luke's DNA could've been used to create Snoke of all people, but that's a whole other kettle of fish.