Writer-director Rian Johnson: ‘That ship is just filled with ghosts for Luke.’
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Luke Skywalker quietly walks aboard the Millennium Falcon, alone.

David James/© 2017 Lucasfilm Ltd.
His old friends are gone.
His old life is gone.
He is ghostlike himself.

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The old Luke Skywalker is gone, too.
Im telling you, I didnt expect to have the reaction I had, the 66-year-old actor tells EW.
I mean, this was not on the shooting day.

Bruno Dayan/© 2017 Lucasfilm Ltd. All Rights Reserved
I was just street clothes and going to visit that set.
And I said, Sure.
It didnt take long for it to overwhelm him.
I mean, I just welled up with emotion and I said, I need to be by myself.
When the others left, the actor reacted much the way Luke does in the scene.
He looked around, took it in.
Let it hit him.
They had recreated it down to every last detail that I remember.
The oil drips, the hanging pipes, just everything.
The dice in the cockpit, he said.
And we all kind of looked at each other, just like, Oh my God.
It was an emotional scene, but not especially jubilant.
Theres a lot of melancholy, Johnson says.
You know, that ship is just filled with ghosts for Luke.
The only funny thing is … the character never even liked the ship.
But that beat up old ship means a great deal to people, in that fictional galaxy and beyond.
Seeing that set once more in real life made Hamill realize how much.
All of this, happening to me again was… its hard to put into words, Hamill says.
I figured when the prequels came out, plus a few years, people would forget about us.
But it never really went away.
Instead, its stronger than ever.
For years, fans have been approaching Hamill, telling him what these movies mean to them.
Revisiting the Millennium Falcon made Hamill realize that he can mark his life by theStar Warsmovies, too.
Its going to be harder for him to hear those stories now.
So, stop it.