Mark Hamill Successfully Begged George Lucas To Cut This Line From Star Wars' Script

The "Star Wars" franchise has delivered some of the most iconic quotes in cinema history, from "May the force be with you" to "I am your father." But while these famous lines of dialogue are memorable for all the right reasons, there are many others that stand out for all the wrong ones, including Anakin Skywalker's cringeworthy "I don't like sand" and the awkward "No need to report that to him until we have something to report" line from "The Phantom Menace."

Legendary filmmaker and "Star Wars" screenwriter George Lucas has received criticism from fans and critics alike for his wooden, often kid-friendly dialogue since the release of "A New Hope" back in 1977. In fact, Harrison Ford famously told Lucas during the filming of the first film: "You can type this stuff, but you can't say it." However, there was one particular line set to feature in the movie that was so bad that Luke Skywalker actor Mark Hamill begged George Lucas to cut it from the script.

In an interview with Johnny Carson on "The Tonight Show" shortly after the release of "A New Hope" in 1977, Mark Hamill described the film's dialogue as "a bit difficult." He went on to explain that there was one line he "begged" George Lucas to take out because it caused him issues during his screen test, and fortunately, he did.

The dialogue was to take place as Luke Skywalker and Han Solo approached the remains of the planet of Alderaan. According to Hamill, Han Solo was supposed to say, "Look, kid, I've done my part of the bargain. When I get to an asteroid, you, the old man, and the droids get dropped off." Luke Skywalker was meant to reply: "But we can't turn back, fear is their greatest defense, I doubt if the actual security there is any greater than it was on Aquilae or Sullust, and what there is is most likely directed towards a large-scale assault."

Hamill told Carson that when he read the line, he thought, "Who talks like this, George? This is really not fair, because we're the ones who are going to get vegetables thrown at us — not you." Recalling the line on the Politickin' with Gavin Newsom, Marshawn Lynch, and Doug Hendrickson podcast in 2024, Hamill said, "thank God it's not in the movie," and explained how challenging it was to "make it sound like it was natural dialogue spontaneously coming out of your head."

In a 1999 interview with Empire about the "Star Wars" prequel trilogy, George Lucas addressed criticism of his dialogue, admitting he'd be "the first person" to say he "can't write dialogue." "My dialogue is very utilitarian and is designed to move things forward," Lucas told the publication. "I'm not Shakespeare. It's not designed to be poetic. It's not designed to have a clever turn of phrase."

The filmmaker explained that for "Star Wars: A New Hope," he had Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, the screenwriters of the Oscar-winning "American Graffiti", which Lucas directed and co-wrote, go through the script and do a "dialogue polish on it." According to Lucas, the pair added a "snappy retort" to around a dozen lines of dialogue. However, after working in the film industry for many years, cheesy dialogue is not George Lucas' biggest regret about "Star Wars." Instead, he told Empire that he's decided snappy lines aren't "ultimately essential" when making the films.

"So in the last few movies [the prequel trilogy] we did not try and be clever with the dialogue," Lucas explained. "I just wanted to get from point A to point B. This film doesn't lend itself to that sort of thing because it's not about snappy one-liners."