Mark Hamill knew about his Luke Skywalker return before The Mandalorian season 1 even aired, according to new information from Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian. The Jedi’s return was a perfect climax to an already great season 2 for the Star Wars series, and the sequence of Luke slicing through a battalion of dark troopers has quickly established its place as one of the best moments in the entire franchise. But while Luke’s return was a surprise to many fans, it seems that Hamill knew he’d be reprising the role long before season 2 of The Mandalorian even entered production.
Though it’s set up as a big surprise, Luke’s return in The Mandalorian is built up from the moment Grogu first appears on the show. In season 2 especially, Luke is alluded to indirectly multiple times during Din Djarin’s search for a teacher the child. His meeting with Ahsoka Tano, his voyage to Tython, and his interactions with the New Republic set up the Skywalker cameo, but due to Hamill’s age and rumors of the character being recast for other projects, many fans were hesitant to believe Luke would actually come back.
In the latest episode of Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian, Hamill and series creator Jon Favreau reveal that Luke’s return was part of the Mandalorian plan from very near the beginning and that Hamill was told about it before season 1 even premiered. Apparently, Hamill was informed of the Luke Skywalker plan when he was brought on set to do a voiceover cameo for a background character. After revealing the Baby Yoda twist, Favreau clued Hamill into their broader plan to bring Luke back. Read Hamill and Favreau’s full quotes below.
Hamill: “I was contacted by Jon [Favreau] and Dave [Filoni] inviting me to come over and take a look at The Mandalorian. They said they’d love my opinion. That should’ve been the giveaway right away. I went over and they asked me to do a voice for a character that was in the Cantina.”
Favreau: “He will often do unbilled cameos as voice talent for other Star Wars projects, so it made perfect sense that we’d bring him in. But we started showing him a lot of the stuff, this was before anything had aired, we showed him the first episode with the reveal and he was really captivated by it… He liked what we were doing and where we were going with it. And so we told him what we were thinking of doing.”
Given how successful Hamill’s Luke reprisal wound up being, it’s fun to know that the star was aware of the plan from the start. The Mandalorian has been praised for the tightness and consistency of its Star Wars storytelling, so it makes sense too that Luke’s return was planned out far in advance. Hamill has remained a hero of the Star Wars fandom through the years by embracing his role as a pop culture icon and staying closely connected to the franchise’s more recent projects. There was no one better to bring back The Mandalorian, and no more triumphant way to do so.
Hamill’s future in the modern Star Wars era is a bit less certain. It’s possible that his Mandalorian appearance will be a one-time cameo, but there are also plenty of ways Luke could show up again in The Mandalorian or other upcoming Disney+ shows like Ahsoka and Rangers of the New Republic. Whether or not Hamill gets to play Luke Skywalker in live-action again, fans will always be able to enjoy his incredible return at the end of The Mandalorian season 2.
