Mark Hamill Fuels This Crazy Luke Skywalker Fan Theory
A couple days ago, this author came across a new Instagram post by Mark Hamill, famously known for portraying Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars saga, and for voicing Joker in the Batman: The Animated Series. He is known for being quite active on Instagram, posting a range of pictures from fun whimsical memes, to throwback nostalgic images, to deeper thought-provoking ideas. This recent post pointed to a conspiracy theory that has been circulating under the radar for a while. In my opinion, it is as well supported as the fake moon landing and Paul is dead theories.
Yes, Mark Hamill himself is informing us of the Bigger Luke theory (commonly abbreviated as BL). According to the Bigger Luke Wikidot article (not to be confused with Wikipedia) from way back in 2015, a slightly larger version of Luke Skywalker exists in addition to the Regular Luke and has appeared a few times in the original Star Wars trilogy.
Bigger Luke is estimated to be approximately an inch taller than Regular Luke (also known as Luke Prime). The primary evidence supporting this theory is the use of Luke’s height in comparison to Han Solo’s height.
The red line in the top picture indicates the size discrepancy between Regular Luke and Han when compared to Bigger Luke and Han in the bottom picture.
Note how Regular Luke is a lot shorter than Han compared to Bigger Luke.
Two main hypotheses stem from the Bigger Luke theory. The Canon Luke Hypothesis states that there is a larger version of Luke Skywalker within theStar Warsuniverse canon. In other words, there are two Luke Skywalkers in the story ofStar Wars. On the other hand, the Hamill Hypothesis states that an uncredited (and yet to be identified) look-alike of Mark Hamill portrayed Luke in certain scenes of the movies. There is only one Luke Skywalker in theStar Warsuniverse, but there are two people in the real world playing the part of the character.
Canon Luke Hypothesis
Bigger Luke is a Result of Force Illusion
Perhaps Obi-Wan Kenobi uses Force illusion to create Bigger Luke in order to protect him from the Empire. In slightly changing Luke’s height, he prevents the targeting computer inside TIE pilots' helmets from locking on Luke. This contributes to their notoriously poor aim when shooting at Luke.
On the other hand, there is the possibility of Luke creating the Force illusion himself. In their first encounter in Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope, Princes Leia comments, “Aren’t you a little short for a stormtrooper?” Luke could have been angered by this comment, leading him to subconsciously use the Force to make himself appear larger. According to the Wikidot article, this line of reasoning is not popular even among the BL theorists as there have been evidence of Bigger Luke prior to his encounter with Princess Leia.
Bigger Luke is a Clone of Regular Luke
Unrelated to Bigger Luke Theory, Luke does confront his clone Luuke Skywalker in the Legends Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn.
Quite simply, Bigger Luke is the result of minor imperfections in the cloning process. Owen Lars could have cloned Luke to help with the moisture farm, where a larger, more robust version of Luke is desirable. While a “Luke Hulk” would make more sense in this case, Uncle Owen might not want to attract attention to the existence of two differently built Lukes. Thus, he settles for a slightly larger Bigger Luke.
Alternatively, it is Obi-Wan Kenobi who clones Luke Skywalker. He is very familiar with clones, having worked closely with them during the Clone Wars. Most BL theorists do not support this explanation, however, as they feel that Order 66 would have left a negative impression of clones on Obi-Wan.
As seen in the prequel trilogy, R2-D2 is deeply integrated into the Skywalker story. Perhaps he knows of the importance of Luke Skywalker in the grand scheme of things. When Luke leaves his home suddenly to find old Ben Kenobi, Artoo could have cloned Luke as a backup in case of Regular Luke’s demise. As a droid, he may use a complex system to shift Luke’s consciousnesses between two cloned bodies, one being slightly larger than the other. This could be possible as similar technology is used by Emperor Palpatine in Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker.
Hamill Hypothesis
Mark Hamill's scars from the car accident are believed to have been the motivation for creating the scene with the wampa attack in The Empire Strikes Back.
It is well known that Mark Hamill was involved in a car accident on January 11, 1977. As the accident occurred before A New Hope had finished filming, the use of a look-alike for certain shots was necessary while he recovered. However, this highly probable theory is shot down as it does not account for appearances of Bigger Luke in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. After all, Mark Hamill had recovered (albeit with some facial scars) by the time work on the latter two movies began.
What do you think of these theories? Was it just a fun thought exercise? Do you dare delve deeper down the rabbit hole? Will you now watch each scene closely, comparing the size of Luke from one shot to the other (always in relation to Han’s height, of course)? Does this theory now change your rewatch of the original trilogy forever?
Mark Hamill pointed out that Regular Luke and Bigger Luke appeared together on The Muppet Show.
Source(s): ComicBook.com, Wikidot