The internet breathlessly reported on anything even tangentially Star Wars-related even before Disney started planning additional movies, so it’s not surprising that the rumor mill is working overtime now. All you have to do is ask an actor a hypothetical about whether they’d do a new Star Wars movie, they say “Sure, I’d do it, I like money,” and BOOM, you’ve got your CARRIE FISHER MIGHT BE IN STAR WARS headline. Today’s news outlet + actor combo is Mark Hamill and Entertainment Tonight. Hamill says he’s actually been meeting with screenwriter Michael Arndt, so at least this one isn’t totally based on nothing. But almost.
First off, will he appear in Star Wars VII? “They’re talking to us,” he reveals. “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.”
In terms of where we’ll pick up with Luke Skywalker in Star Wars VII, “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.'”
The key word here being “assuming.” They’ve had a meeting. That’s the takeaway from this. Get excited if you must. It’s weird to me that people take ownership of Star Wars as something personal to them when it’s about as unique as Ford or Pepsi at this point. Ooh, you like Star Wars too?! Let’s start a f*cking ‘zine! But Disney has always had a weird mastery of that kind of fandom too, so they’re perfect for each other. Call me Luke Skywanker.
All I know about Mark Hamill is that Jason Dove (tonight’s Frotcast guest, incidentally) claims to have a friend who had to break up with his girlfriend because she hooked up with Mark Hamill at a sci-fi convention, and that story will never get old for me. Jedis don’t even have to use the force, they can just say “Hi, I’m Luke Skywalker.”
Mark Hamill last year, via DailyMail.