THE MOMENT unfolded 10 years ago, and you watch it realizing that in 2005, as Mark Hamill and J.J. Abrams sat across from each other like seeming strangers, they had no apparent inkling about how intertwined their professional destinies would become. But now, that moment ripples with an eerie sense of future fortunes.  On this episode of IFC’s “Dinner for Five,” Hamill was asked whether he ever wanted to take Luke Skywalker to the Dark Side. “I pitched that to George” Lucas, replied Hamill, who explained that of course, as an actor, it would be especially interesting to play Luke as a villain.  Host Kevin Smith and tablemates Stan Lee and Jason Lee, you sense, had their interest piqued. But there, without any obvious poker “tell,” sat Abrams, then noted for “Lost” and “Alias,” well before rebooting “Star Trek” or “Star Wars.” Perhaps the wheels were turning, though, because Abrams seems transfixed.  Fast-forward to recent interviews, in which Abrams and Lucasfilm honcho Kathleen Kennedy recounted how she wooed the director to board “The Force Awakens” over his initial resistance. Abrams and Kennedy both say she posed one question to him: “Who is Luke Skywalker?” And like an instant clincher, he was in.  The question that many fans have asked this year is not “Who is Luke?” but “Where is Luke?” The Tattooine farm boy has been nearly absent from trailers, save for his apparent mechanical hand reaching to R2-D2 for a moment.  The hyperventilating speculation whipped up by Luke’s absence has stoked one prominent question from the fandom’s menace: “Is Luke evil?” Has he gone to the Dark Side in the 30 narrative years since “The Return of the Jedi.”  [‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens': Where is the Luke we’re looking for?]  It’s worth noting that a famed 1991 Dark Horse comic had Luke do just that, becoming an apprentice to Emperor Palpatine before being pulled back into the light. And we can see why that turn might hold appeal to Hamill (per his own words), as well as the simpatico Abrams, who has acknowledged that there are significant reasons he has revealed next to nothing about Luke.  So what is there to make of the endless Internet rumors and theories? Well, perhaps, our greatest clue yet comes from “Force Awakens” lead John Boyega, who in a recent interview said that more than three decades after “Jedi,” there is a galactic generation for whom Luke, Princess Leia and Han Solo are “as good as myth” – they might as well be fairy tale.  So what that means, of course, is that Luke does not have to be evil; history merely needs to have been rewritten so that Luke is remembered as a potential villain. And if Luke is indeed a recluse, sitting out much of “The Force Awakens” almost as much as Lucas himself, then he is not actively defending his heroic past.  What that all points to, then, is an overarching theme: What is being awakened is not just the Force but also a sense of corrected oral history. When in the trailer Han tells the new kids that “it’s all true,” he is affirming the fairy tale.  So who is Luke Skywalker? He is more myth than man, it seems, to a galaxy far, far away from his heyday. As a Force-sensitive human, Luke long toed the line of the Dark Side in trying to rescue friends, family and even his father. Whatever is keeping Luke away could speak to this spiritual struggle.  It’s worth remembering, too, that Lucas, in the spirit of the old Saturday movie serials, cherished his pure black-and-white hats. Abrams, on the other hand, working his mystery box of paints, could let gray illusions linger before the Force entirely awakens.  Writer/artist/visual storyteller Michael Cavna is creator of the "Comic Riffs" column and graphic-novel reviewer for The Post's Book World. He relishes sharp-eyed satire in most any form.
By the time the 'Force Awakens,' has Luke Skywalker gone to the Dark Side? Is he a victim of galactic propaganda? Let's shine a light.