George Lucas, the man behind the dynamic and ever-expanding world of Star Wars is a genius. Casting Mark Hamill to portray the lead role of Luke Skywalker but he wasn’t originally called… Skywalker!
With hundreds of names in the Star Wars franchise, keeping track of everyone and everything became tedious for fans. Lucas paid special care that every name had a meaning behind it and that’s why, he rejected the idea of calling Mark Hamill’s character, Luke Starkiller.
George Lucas Could Have Named Him Luke Starkiller!
Starkiller. The word evokes a sense of dread and apocalyptic doom that awaits someone who crosses his path. Well, our hero wasn’t like that when George Lucas created the Star Wars franchise.
Portrayed by Mark Hamill, Luke Skywalker was just a novice whose destiny awaited the greatness that he was meant to achieve. So naming someone Starkiller and having him become the good guy didn’t make a lot of sense.
Sure, the name would have suited perfectly for Anakin Skywalker “but not his son” said George Lucas. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Lucas revealed that the name was very cool but he ultimately chose to go with Skywalker.
All the names have history, but sometimes I make mistakes – Luke
was originally going to be called Luke Starkiller, but then I realized that wan’t
appropriate for the character.
He further continued,
It was appropriate for Anakin, but not his son. I said, ‘Wait, we can’t weigh this down too much – he’s the one that redeems him.’
And so, the name Luke Skywalker came to be. Although it would have been quite an iconic name for the protagonist of the movies, the title of ‘Starkiller’ wasn’t meant for Mark Hamill’s character.
This came as good news for Star Wars fans since another character was given the name of Starkiller and he seems to own the title! If Luke Skywalker’s name had been changed, the world would have never met Galen Marek aka Starkiller.
The World Wouldn’t Have Met The Real Starkiller
If you haven’t played some of the Star Wars games, then you wouldn’t know the greatness of some characters. From iconic stories to intense action gameplay, the world was introduced to Star Wars: The Force Unleashed back in 2008.
(Side note: – Some of the games are better than the current Star Wars series. Just saying).
In 2008, the world was introduced to Galen Marek. An apprentice to Darth Vader, Marek was a human whose planet was raided by Vader and his master Sidious. When Vader saw that the child had some Force around him, he abducted Marek and trained him under his wing.
Soon enough, Marek was given the nickname “Starkiller”. Having immense loyalty for his master, Starkiller would round up all the rebels in the universe and clear the path for Vader and his empire.
He was later betrayed by Vader twice and when his friends were kidnapped, Starkiller died while saving them. The name indeed suits Garen Malek but if Mark Hamill’s Luke Skywalker had that name, the world wouldn’t have been introduced to Garen Malek.
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is a 2008 video game that is available on platforms like Xbox, PS3, PC, and, Nintendo Switch.
