The One Thing Mark Hamill Would Change About The Original Star Wars Trilogy
Since "Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope" premiered in 1977, the "Star Wars" franchise has been one of the most successful in movie history, grossing more than $21 billion at the global box office (per Statista). Measuring the films' success in dollars doesn't really do them justice. "Star Wars" is closer to a modern cultural myth than a movie franchise, which is why the films stand the test of time almost 50 years later.
Since 1977, fans have been dissecting and debating these films. Like any movies, the "Star Wars" movies underwent countless revisions along the way, so that the final versions are substantially different than George Lucas' original vision. This leads fans to wonder what could have been.
In 2014, a "Star Wars" fan on Reddit asked star Mark Hamill about the one thing he would have changed about "A New Hope." Hamill pointed to a discarded scene that would have told us much more about Luke Skywalker.
Mark Hamill wanted to keep an early scene that shed light on Luke's character
The scene would have happened early in "A New Hope." It begins by introducing Luke on his aunt and uncle's farm working on a moisture vaporator, when he notices the battle between Darth Vader's (David Prowse/James Earl Jones) Star Destroyer and Princess Leia's (Carrie Fisher) blockade runner taking place in Tatooine's orbit.
Then, Luke races to the nearby town of Tosche Station. There, he finds a group of his friends, Camie and Fixer-–although it's clear they find Luke to be a bit annoying. Camie even calls him by his not-at-all-flattering nickname, "Wormy." He also bumps into his best pal Biggs Darklighter (Garrick Hagon), who has been away at the Imperial starfighter academy. Luke is excited to see his friend, but also jealous that Biggs also got to escape their desert planet home. Luke even wishes he could join the empire like Biggs did. Later in the scene, however, Biggs confesses to Luke that he's planning to defect to the Rebel Alliance. This only makes Luke more jealous.
According to Hamill, the scene shows a couple things about Luke's character: one, that he's not particularly well-liked by his friends. And two, that Luke is willing to join the Empire to escape Tatooine. "This shows that Luke is apolitical, and joining the Empire is even attractive to him," Hamill explained.
George Lucas had good reason to cut the scene
There are two reasons why Lucas cut the scene. According to Hamill, Lucas felt that the scene slowed down the action and didn't add enough information to the story. The second reason is that Lucas preferred to keep the film's early point of view with C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) and R2-D2, (Kenny Baker). At this point in the story, the droids are mostly overwhelmed bystanders to the action going on around them, and Lucas felt that they would serve as effective audience surrogates (per IndieWire).
Of course, this decision came with a tradeoff. Biggs does show up in the final cut of the film. He's the Red Squadron member with the black-and-yellow checkered pattern on his helmet. He and Luke do get a brief reunion on Yavin IV (which was originally a much longer scene). Biggs then fights in the Battle of Yavin as Red Three, where he meets his demise.
In the theatrical version, the audience barely has time to meet Biggs before he dies. This deprives his death of the emotional impact it might otherwise have had. Luke himself is only momentarily upset, and Biggs is never mentioned again. Then again, Luke had just seen his mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness) killed in front of him, so he already had a lot on his mind.
In Hamill's answer, he noted that the scene was still available in the novelization of "A New Hope" as well as the BBC radio play. Since 2014, Disney has also included on Disney+ as part of the "A New Hope" extras, along with many other deleted scenes.
The Book of Boba Fett included a nod to this deleted scene
By deleting this scene, George Lucas effectively removed Luke's friends Camie and Fixer from the "Star Wars" canon. That's really only disappointing if you're a diehard "Star Wars" fan. But "The Mandalorian" co-creator Jon Favreau counts himself as one of those, which is why he included an homage to the scene in "The Book of Boba Fett."
In episode two, Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison) is on Tatooine tracking a swoop biker gang, and he follows them to the same Tosche station. There, he finds the bikers harassing the locals, who happen to be none other than Camie (Mandy Kowalski) and Fixer (Skyler Bible). Since "The Book of Boba Fett" takes place after "Return of the Jedi," that sets it about four years after the original deleted scene would have taken place. It doesn't look like much has changed in Camie and Fixer's lives.
Camie also makes a cameo in Jason Fry's novelization of "The Last Jedi." In an early scene, Luke has a vision of what his life on Tatooine could have been like, and that includes a marriage to Camie (via IndieWire).
In other words, Disney's purchase of Lucasfilm has been fantastic news for everyone clamoring to meet Luke's old friends.