Does William Shatner think it is 2016? Genuinely asking because why is he bringing up a comment Mark Hamill made back in 2016 about Luke Skywalker? Is it not 2025? Did I miss something?!
Shatner, who famously played Captain Kirk and spawned fanfiction between Kirk and Leonard Nimoy’s Spock, is yet again attacking fans who interpret a character differently from what was played on screen. This time, he’s yelling about Luke Skywalker. Wrong franchise, dude.
Taking to X, Shatner posted a common sentiment online. He was complaining about “Disney ruining” the franchise but said it was Luke Skywalker actor Mark Hamill who ruined things. Why? Because one time he talked about interpretation of Luke’s sexuality.
“For those SWs fans who are trying to tell me Disney ruined everything: I assume you are referring to Mara Jade? Hamill actually ruined it for you when he revealed Luke was gay. Mara, being struck from SWs Canon, was part of her annulment agreement from the Force,” Shatner wrote on X. The image she shared is a headline from 2016.
The headline reads: “‘Of Course’ Luke Skywalker Is Gay, Confirms Mark Hamill, Echoing Thousands of Fan-Fiction Prayers.” The piece goes on to share the full quote “…fans are writing and ask all these questions, ‘I’m bullied in school… I’m afraid to come out’. They say to me, ‘Could Luke be gay?’ I’d say it is meant to be interpreted by the viewer… If you think Luke is gay, of course he is. You should not be ashamed of it. Judge Luke by his character, not by who he loves.” You know, saying how you view Luke and his sexuality is fine!
As one fan wrote in the replies, this feels like a weird joke that came out of nowhere.
Leave my Mara Jade alone
The situation is weird. It is odd that he brought up this headline from nearly 10 years ago and it is weird that he’s THIS mad about people….viewing characters in a way that makes them happy. The actual quote was Hamill saying that fans can view Luke however they want. If they see him as a gay character, that’s okay by him. He wasn’t saying that was the truth and only that was true.
So Shatner then bringing Mara Jade into it just ends up hurting me, a Mara Jade fan. When Disney purchased Star Wars and all of Lucasfilm, it ended up erasing the Extended Universe, known as the EU. That included characters like my beloved Mara Jade.
In the novels and comics, she was married to Luke Skywalker and helped him in training the Jedi and the two had a son named Ben. So far, Thrawn is the only EU character to really have a moment in the Disney era and while I thought I’d maybe get my twins (with Rey and Ben in the sequel trilogy), there hasn’t been much else from the EU in our modern day Star Wars.
It’s fine. I have hope my Mara will come back to me. But Shatner using a character that was deemed “not canon” with the REST of the EU is weird. What exactly is he trying to prove? That an actor having compassion and care for his fans and their views on a character is weak? Is Shatner’s anger over people thinking a character is gay despite what the actor themselves played it has? Something he, himself, has fought people online about?
Whatever the reason, it was odd that he brought up a story from 2016 to make some weird point about Mara Jade. Leave her alone!
Published: Feb 13, 2025 05:03 pm