Star Wars' Mark Hamill Addresses Luke Skywalker's Controversial Return

Airing back in 2020, The Mandalorian became yet another successful Star Wars television show as it saw Pedro Pascal adorn a helmet and become yet another surrogate father.

Now consisting of three seasons, the Disney+ show continues to impress fans, especially thanks to its exciting characters, some new and some old.

However, back in season one, The Mandalorian saw the return of Luke Skywalker himself and thanks to digital de-aging technology, Mark Hamill was able to appear as his younger self once more.

Although Luke is a beloved figure in the Star Wars universe, his return was considered controversial thanks to the technology used to de-age the actor, giving him something of an “uncanny valley” appearance.

That being said, it seems as though Hamill has no regrets about his return and in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, he explained why he chose to take on the role.

He puts it down to viewers never getting the chance to “see Luke as a Master Jedi at the peak of his powers.”

“The reason I did Mandalorian was that Luke had a beginning and an end,” he explained.

“There was no middle. It was like making a trilogy about James Bond as a young boy who first became aware of the Secret Service and wanted to be a part of it.

Part two was him training to be an agent. Part three is earning his license to kill — The End. No From Russia With Love, Dr. No or Goldfinger.

You never got to see Luke as a Master Jedi at the peak of his powers. 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. So when I got the chance, I thought, “Geez, this is wonderful.””

With Hamill appearing as Luke Skywalker in the original, prequel and sequel trilogy, you would have thought that he had enough time to tell his story. However, according to Hamill, it barely scratched the surface of what he was capable of.

However, fans were feeling less supportive of his return.

“Disney had so many chances to really do something interesting with Luke but the sequels set him up to fail so hard,” one user shared.

Another fan joked, “Wish he'd returned when CGI was at the peak of its powers too.”

It remains to be seen if Hamill will appear as Luke again in any future Star Wars project but let us hope that CGI technology has improved by then at least.