Ahsoka Tano’s debut in The Mandalorian may have been designed as a backdoor pilot to a solo series that was inevitably confirmed at the recent Disney Investor Day, but you’d have thought the season 2 finale didn’t include Luke Skywalker for the same purpose.
After months of rumors and speculation, not to mention an impressive veil of secrecy, a digitally de-aged Mark Hamill and a couple of stunt doubles joined forces to bring the hero of the Original Trilogy back to Star Wars. Seeing Luke cross paths with Din Djarin was everything the fans wanted it to be, especially with Baby Yoda caught in the middle, but it seems that we haven’t seen the last of the legendary Jedi. Based on “The Rescue,” de-aging the 69 year-old Hamill for an entire season of television is probably out of the question given how inconsistent the effects were for just a couple of minutes, but support has been gathering behind the idea of Sebastian Stan stepping into the role.
Hamill was 32 years old when Return of the Jedi was released, and with The Mandalorian taking place roughly five years after the conclusion of Episode VI, not only is there a striking physical resemblance between the two, but the 38 year-old Stan is almost exactly the same age that Luke would be in the canonical timeline.
It remains to be seen who’ll play the character the next time he shows up, but FandomWire claims that a Luke Skywalker series has now entered active development at Lucasfilm, although no further details are offered. And while it isn’t the first time that we’ve heard of such a project, it’s important to note that there are already close to a dozen Star Wars shows in the works for Disney Plus, and they aren’t running the risk of recasting or attempting to de-age such an iconic character and incurring the myriad of potential problems that come with it, so best take this one with a pinch of salt for now.
