Mark Hamill believed his lightsaber-wielding days were finally behind him after his appearance in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, but as we all know, that turned out not to be the case. The actor who kickstarted the whole franchise by playing the powerful young Jedi Luke Skywalker has been tied to the franchise his entire career and after The Last Jedi he returned once more to the role.
Hamill first stepped into the role as a young actor, aged 24 years old, and the success of the first trilogy rocketed him and his fellow stars, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford into the popular culture stratosphere. Though he did not come back for the prequels shot in the ’00’s, he, along with Fisher and Ford, returned for the sequel trilogy which focused on Daisy Ridley’s Rey and Adam Driver’s Kylo Ren predominantly. Upon reading the script Hamill was convinced his time in the Star Wars universe was done, telling Esquire,
“When I read The Last Jedi‘s script, I said, ‘OK, well, that’s it for me, and you start that process of disengaging from something that’s been a part of your life.”
This was not the end for him though, as thanks to the leaps and bounds in technology, Hamill was able to return to play his younger self in The Mandalorian and also in The Book of Boba Fett. Using Deep Fake technology and a young doppelgänger, Graham Hamilton, they were able to digitally age Hamill down to look just like his 24-year-old self (there is still an element of uncanny valley in his face, but it’s remarkable nonetheless).
When he was approached by The Mandalorian showrunners Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau to return, he watched the series, revealed he was “very impressed with it” and was back on board to take on the Dark Side once again. Upon watching his return, many weren’t convinced that Hamill was used at all, believing it all to be CGI. Hamill set the record straight, posting a tweet of him on set.
The actor would go on and do his part, then was followed by Hamilton, and they would watch the other’s performance in order to become one person, the farm boy and Jedi, Luke Skywalker, and the rest was done in post-production. Hamill admits, “It is unusual to see yourself like that,” adding “It can’t be cheap.”
With this having been achieved, many wondered if the actor would come back to play his character once again in the series, but sadly for those who desire it, it doesn’t look to be on the cards. Hamill believes that Luke Skywalker has a beginning, a middle, and an end.
“People say, ‘Oh, now you’re going to be able to do a whole series of Luke post-Return of the Jedi.’ I said, ‘I don’t think so.’ First of all, they don’t need to tell those stories, but if they do, they could get an age-appropriate actor.”
For now, you can catch him playing Luke Skywalker in the many Star Wars movies he appears in as well as de-aged in The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett on Disney Plus.
