The slow imperial march of Star Wars: Episode VII promotion continues. After the leaked (or “leaked”) set photos and director J.J. Abrams’ sarcastic response to them, Disney has released an official promo picture of Mark Hamill wielding a lightsaber with Jedi Mickey Mouse.
Hamill, 62, is attending the Star Wars Weekend today through Sunday at Disney’s Hollywood Studios theme park in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. It’s the first Star Wars Weekend attended by Hamill in 17 years, because being part of the new trilogy means extra meet and greets with the fans. It also means losing a significant amount of weight and growing a cool Jedi mentor beard like Obi-Wan.
Hamill spoke about his weight loss regimen with the Orlando Sentinel (via /film), but more importantly, he talked about the Internet’s insatiable appetite for spoilers. (Don’t hate the player; hate the game, Luke.)
“The first one, no one cared. The second one there was a lot of interest, but it was before the Internet. […] I tell people we’re not trying to annoy you or tease you or play some massive game. Basically what the goal is to keep the surprises for the movie instead of spoiling them on the Internet.”
He also said he hasn’t seen any of the movies after they left theaters, so the more obsessed fans know more than he does about them and can get a bit aggressive.
“I am surprised sometimes at how vehemently they get if they’re not satisfied, which is scary. I have this feeling that no matter what we do there’s going to be a faction that really is disappointed. You just can’t live up to that. Any kind of reunion type endeavor, whatever it is […] you can never go home again.”
As long as there’s no Jar Jar, we’re cool.