Mark Hamill talks about his (possible) involvement in Star Wars VII

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

We haven’t heard much from Mark Hamill since his comments about the announcement of the Lucasfilm/Disney merger, but he broke his silence on ETonline, giving us some facts and speculation to keep the STAR WARS: EPISODE VII fires burning.  RETURN OF THE JEDI is my all-time favorite STAR WARS film, largely because I was at the right age (6) to really absorb the franchise and become enamored with it.  Hamill as Luke Skywalker, rocking the black Jedi Knight outfit and green lightsaber became the perfect vision of the hero to me.  So, naturally, it’s always good to hear his perspective and I’m hopeful that he returns (and pretty sure he will).  Here’s what he had to say to ET:

On his current involvement with the next set of films:

“They’re talking to us.  George [Lucas] wanted to know whether we’d be interested. He did say that if we didn’t want to do it, they wouldn’t cast another actor in our parts – they would write us out. … I can tell you right away that we haven’t signed any contracts. We’re in the stage where they want us to go in and meet with Michael Arndt, who is the writer, and Kathleen Kennedy, who is going to run Lucasfilm. Both have had meetings set that were postponed — on their end, not mine. They’re more busy than I am.”

On where he’d like to see the franchise go:

“I said to George that I wanted to go back to the way it was, in the sense that ours was much more carefree and lighthearted and humorous – in my opinion, anyway. And another thing I’d want to make sure of is are we going to have the whole gang back? Is Carrie and Harrison and Billy Dee and Tony Daniels, everybody that’s around from the original [returning]? I want to make sure that everybody’s on board here, rather than just one. I guess I’ll have to tune into your show to figure out who’s on board.”

On where Luke Skywalker’s story may pick up:

“I’m assuming, because I haven’t talked to the writers, that these movies would be about our offspring — like my character would be sort of in the Obi-Wan range [as] an influential character. … When I found out [while making the original trilogy] that ultimate good news/bad news joke – the good news is there’s a real attractive, hot girl in the universe; the bad news is she’s your sister – I thought, ‘Well, I’m going to wind up like Sir Alec [Guinness]. I’m going to be a lonely old hermit living out in some kind of desert igloo with a couple of robots.'”

On CGI and practical effects:

“I hope they find the right balance of CGI with practical effects. I love props, I love models, miniatures, matte paintings — I’m sort of old school. I think if you go too far in the direction of CGI it winds up looking like just a giant a video game, and that’s unfortunate. … If they listen to me at all, it’ll be, ‘Lighten up and go retro with the way it looks.'”

On the idea of standalone films:

“That’s really smart. Then you’re more like James Bond pictures, where they come out and it’s not an investment of a three-movie arc. … It’s so rich, that [Star Wars] universe, in terms of quirkiness and oddball [nature]. We would talk about that [on the original film’s set]. We’d go like, ‘That little band that’s playing in the Cantina, what’s their story?! I mean, are they a traveling band? Are they the house band? Who’s their manager?’ They didn’t have names when we first were talking about them. Now they’re called, like, Sy Snootles – they come up with names down the road when they have to name toys.”

On what spinoff film he’d like to see happen:

“Oh, I don’t know, set it on the Wookiee planet — although that might be prohibitively expensive with that many Wookiees,” he says with some resignation. After a little more thought, he muses, “That’s what I would love. You pick the most insignificant little [character] – there’s this little hawk-beaked character that’s somewhere in Jabba’s palace, I can’t even remember what function he served — but that’s what I would think. You pick something that almost nobody remembers or knows about — and then have a movie about him! You could probably put about 500 different character’s names on a big, giant dart board, throw a dart, and say, ‘Okay, wherever it lands we’ve got to make him the central character.'”

And, finally, he adds with a laugh:

“I hope we don’t overstay our welcome.”

I’m beyond stoked to see the next evolution of STAR WARS and having the old (literally) gang back would be icing on the cake.  I know there is some trepidation, but that’s to be expected.  On the whole, I think STAR WARS: EPISODE VII is going to be a tremendous film and one that truly opens up the doors to the next generation of STAR WARS fans. 

STAR WARS: EPISODE VII is slated to hit sometime in 2015 (but, probably 2016). Hamill can next be seen in SUSHI GIRL, which hits DVD and Blu-ray this week.