The fan handling of Luke Skywalker's absence from the Star Wars: The Force Awakens is the most stupid collective human action since we all thought Jar Jar would be a good idea. Mark Hamill has been removed from pretty much all of the marketing for Episode VII (ignoring that he's in the trailer of course), leading to mass speculation over his role (no, he isn't Adam Driver) and bizarre confusion over why exactly we haven't seen him. Things reached their idiotic nadir when we got a barrage of coverage saying that his absence wasn't an accident, as if J.J. Abrams had just forgot to include the main character of the freaking series. There were totally earnest accounts showing actual surprise at how this wasn't a cock-up on Disney's part, but a purposeful part of the marketing. Come on. I mean, how do these people understand any movie that doesn't spell itself out? But things have somehow got worse. In the latest update of the Lucasfilm-backed charity initiative Force For Change (embedded below), J.J. presented a list of the initiatives the film's cast have picked to back. Everyone's here (even Carrie Fisher, who doesn't even bother with an introduction because f**k you), with one notable exception; in a send up of the media frenzy, Abrams points out at the end Mark Hamill's missing, with the video promising his appearance in a follow-up next week. Cool, right? Well no - like with accident-gate, we've had a barrage of reporting that misses the point entirely; most stories relating to this say that Luke Skywalker is going to be "revealed" next week. What? That's stretching so much that Stretch Armstrong appears to have journalistic integrity by comparison (and he can't even pick up a pen because he's a toy). It's going to be a reveal in the same way that camping outside Mark Hamill's house is a major spoiler. But no, because Star Wars everyone's acting like the big spoiler of the movie is about to be ruined. We're going to see Mark Hamill. That's it. Urgh. Next thing you'll be telling me people think Captain America: Civil War will be like the comics. Oh. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9w0G5Qtthw Star Wars: The Force Awakens is in cinemas in the UK from 17th December and the US from 18th December.
