Mark Hamill is enjoying something of a renaissance in the last few years, with his on-screen work in The Long Walk – which has just arrived in cinemas last weekend -, fellow Stephen King adaptation The Life of Chuck released earlier this year, as well as his voice work in Kevin Smith’s He-Man sequels, Masters of the Universe: Revolution and Masters of the Universe: Revelation as the villanous Skeletor.
But as he enjoys his comeback, the actor has been talking about his return to Star Wars in 2015 with The Force Awakens and his larger role in 2017’s The Last Jedi and why originally he wasn’t necessarily interested in coming back for J.J. Abrams’ film.
He told The Hollywood Reporter that he was hugely hesitant about it all, and was only convinced fully when Harrison Ford signed back on to appear too.
“I had real reservations about coming back. I thought it would be a mistake. You can’t catch lightning in a bottle twice — they should really focus on a new generation of characters,” Mark Hamill said.
But it was Ford’s confirmation about his return as Han Solo that seemingly twisted his arm, adding:
“I thought, ‘Well, Harrison is not going to do it anyway.’ You could see his irritation with constantly having to talk about Han Solo. Once I saw in the press that he had accepted, I felt like I had been drafted — because if I’m the only one who says no, I’ll be the most hated man in nerd-dom!”
He went on to add that despite his trepidation about the sequel trilogy, he was far more comfortable with the idea of reappearing as younger Luke Skywalker in the Disney+ series The Mandalorian, as it helped to fill some gaps, saying:
“The reason I did Mandalorian was that Luke had a beginning and an end. There was no middle,” he said. “He was the most idealistic character in that series. He was someone who would take adversity and double down and come back and counter his setbacks. We didn’t see any of that.”
The Long Walk is in UK cinemas now.
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