The Mandalorian season 2 finale pulled off a surprise that probably tops any of the shock twists in the Star Wars show to date. Just when Din Djarin and his allies were hopelessly cornered by Moff Gideon’s Dark Troopers, who should turn up to save them but Luke Skwalker, who’d sensed Baby Yoda through the Force. Luke’s cameo saw him at the height of his powers, singlehandedly taking down the deadly droids and then going off to train Grogu in the ways of the Jedi.
It’s unknown if we’ll be seeing more of Luke on the series in season 3, but for now, fans are hyped that he turned up for at least this brief comeback in the finale. And it’s not just the fans who are still reeling from it, either. Star Gina Carano was speaking about her involvement in the saga to YouTube channel Drunk 3PO recently and she gushed about how electrifying it was to be present when Luke’s cameo was filmed.
“It felt magical. There was, like, electricity happening in the room. There’s a specialness about it. Everybody in the room feels it,” she said.
In the same interview, Carano revealed that she had no idea that Luke was even involved with the episode until she happened to see Mark Hamill in the makeup trailer one day before shooting. By this point, we know that young Luke was recreated via a combination of three performers – Hamill himself, stand-in actor Max Lloyd-Jones and stunt performer Matt Rugetti, with the result brought to life with the same state of the art CGI as Grand Moff Tarkin in Rogue One.
Once the cat was out of the bag and the episode had aired, Hamill also gushed over getting the opportunity to make the cameo on social media. “Sometimes the greatest gifts are the most unexpected and something you never realized you wanted until it was given,” the legendary actor wrote on Twitter, along with a hashtag thanking showrunners Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni.
But will we receive the great gift of more Luke in The Mandalorian season 3? Let the speculation commence, as we won’t find out for a while, given that the show isn’t expected to return until early 2022.
