2. He Only Had A Tiny Role In The Force Awakens As To Not Distract From Rey
Most Star Wars fans were probably expecting Luke Skywalker to play a much larger part in recent sequel The Force Awakens than he ultimately did - mainly because actor Mark Hamill was billed second in the credits, and because... well, that's what everyone involved with the movie lead us to believe (despite the fact Luke was missing from all the marketing). The reason for Luke's general absence, however, wasn't a result of there being no place for him in the story, nor was it because Hamill wasn't available to shoot for any lengthy period of time - it literally came came down to the fact that the filmmakers didn't want all the attention to fall on the iconic character instead of on fresh protagonist Rey. Yep: J.J. Abrams felt that including Luke in a large capacity would have distracted from the new heroine of the series, and opted - instead - to have him turn up for less than a minute during the closing scene. Of course, he'll appear in a proper role in Star Wars: Episode VIII - presumably as Rey's mentor figure (whether there's a paternal element to that is currently unconfirmed).
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
