Mark Hamill transforms into a Knights Templar, returning to origins of the Jedi

Mark Hamill, the actor famous for his portrayal of Luke Skywalker in the Star War saga, has taken on a new role in the History Channel’s epic drama Knightfall.

In it Hamill will play Talus, “a battle-hardened Knight Templar veteran of the Crusades, who survived captivity for ten years in the Holy Land.” The historical dramatization seeks to recreate the final years of the Knights Templar, before they were suppressed by King Philip IV.

What’s interesting is that in the early drafts of the Star Wars story, George Lucas wrote about a 16-year-old boy who enters the “Intersystems Academy to train as a potential Jedi-Templer” (The Making of Star Wars). Of note is the use of the word “Jedi-Templar,” a subtle nod to the Catholic religious military order known as the “Knights Templar.” The word Templar was soon abandoned, but Lucas did not drop the idea entirely, referring to them throughout his films as “Jedi Knights.”

Writer Terrance MacMullan explains how the Knights Templar “were esteemed above other knights for their austerity, devotion, and moral purity. Like the Jedi, they practiced individual poverty within a military-monastic order that commanded great material resources.” Even the Jedi’s garb is reminiscent of the robes worn by the “Christian warrior-monks who took vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.”

Unfortunately, rumors grew about secret rituals and heretical teachings being taught to new recruits of the Knights Templar, and King Philip IV of France took advantage of the situation to confiscate the order’s riches. It’s possible that this episode also influenced Lucas, as it was pointed out, “Much like the Great Jedi Purge ordered by Chancellor Palpatine in ‘Revenge of the Sith,’ France’s King Philip IV annihilated the Knights Templar after arresting hundreds of them on October 13, 1307, and subsequently torturing and executing them for heresy.”

Over 700 years later, October 13 remains a day of mystery and may have inspired Lucas when he created Order 66 (itself biblical in symbolism–666) and the Great Jedi Purge. It is a day when real-life warrior-monks were arrested and subsequently burned at the stake.

As a result, whether he realized it or not, Mark Hamill is returning to the original inspiration of the Jedi by portraying a warrior-monk in Knightfall

Author’s Note: Who were the “Knights Templar?” Were they guilty of heresy? We will look into this fascinating part of Catholic history in the next few weeks.