The idea will not be new for hardcore fans, as a number of Star Wars novels and computer games have seen the Jedi master walk away from the teachings of Obi-Wan Kenobi and more towards what Darth Vader had planned for him.
It's pure speculation at this point in time, and we won't find out the truth until December 2015.
But a number of important facts point the way to an altogether much darker Luke Skywalker.
Here's five of them:
1. He's been a baddie before: Many will not have seen Mark Hamill on cinema screens since the early 80s, but he mostly works behind the scenes as one of the most in-demand cartoon voice actors in America today. Check out his list of recent work on IMDB. He is best known as the voice of The Joker in the animated Batman series, but other notable villains (and there are a lot) include; Alvin the Treacherous, Firelord Ozai, Red Skull and Spider-Man's nemesis Hobgoblin. Clearly he does a great line in maniacal laughs and evil growls which JJ Abrams would be a fool to waste.
2. No one likes a straight-laced hero anymore: In 1977 the role of wide-eyed Tatooine farm boy and wannabe rebel pilot Luke Skywalker made Hamill a star. His mug appeared on curtains, pillow cases, duvets and bedroom walls of children around the world. But cinema fans now demand more from their characters than the rigid good and bad on display in those early Star Wars films. We want to see more realistic, morally ambiguous portrayals. The 1977 goody-goody Luke Skywalker is someone people just can't relate to these days. Modern cinema has moved on.
3. He doesn't look like a hero: Mark Hamill doesn't look like a young Flash Gordon any more. What does he look like? He looks like this. He doesn't look like a Jedi Master that has travelled round the galaxy righting wrongs and killing bad guys with flips and flourishes of his lightsaber. He looks like a man who has been tempted by evil - and a fair few donuts. Let's face it, it would be far easier for JJ Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan to see him as a morally-challenged, fallen hero, than as the saviour of the universe.
4. It's just more interesting: The challenge of bringing Luke Skywalker away from the Dark Side will make a three-film trilogy for everyone to enjoy. It's more interesting for Mark Hamill to play a shadowy, morally ambiguous fallen hero, and more interesting for fans to watch. At the end of Return of the Jedi the Empire has been severely disabled and the Jedi are still only hanging on by a thread. What comes next isn't going to be the clear-cut good/bad days of old as the universe struggles for a balance to the Force.
5. Look who's writing it: Episode VII's script has been written by Lawrence Kasdan, who penned the darkest - and fan favourite - Star Wars film, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. The new Star Wars film is going to be dark - that's a given. What's the darkest thing they can do? Make a generational hero a grizzly bad guy with a chip on his shoulder. Let's see him lop off Chewbacca's head, Game of Thrones style. It's gotta be better than bringing the Ewoks back.
Having predicted this, what would be the reaction from people?
Some old-school Star Wars fans may well be justifiably horrified - and watch for media-created hysteria if they are - at the corruption of their hero.
But, deep-down, wasn't Darth Vader always more interesting as the villain?
Step up young Skywalker, your time has come.
- nzherald.co.nz
