Reflecting on an onscreen career that in the last decade has seen a significant resurgence sparked by his leading man role in The Last Jedi, Mark Hamill discusses his new film the Stephen King adaptation The Long Walk, his life in voice acting and of course Star Wars, where he looks at the AI future of Luke Skywalker as well as Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau, two GFFA creatives he very much approves of.
THR: What do you think about the idea that Lucasfilm might continue to make an AI Luke Skywalker in products, with increasing realism, even after you’re gone? Because you can say that you’re done with the character, but it’s a bit like that Breaking Bad line: “We’re done when I say we’re done.”
MH: What you’re asking about is so hard to contemplate. Are we going to have to have something in our wills that comment on that, saying, “I don’t want this done”? I have enough trouble trying to deal with the jobs that I do have than to start speculating about the future. There’s so many questions about AI that haven’t been answered. We’ll see how it plays out.
THR: It should be easier for you to contemplate than it would be for most because there was already the half-measure — apologies, another random Breaking Bad reference — of the de-aged version of Luke in The Mandalorian.
MH: The reason I did Mandalorian was that Luke had a beginning and an end. 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.” I think Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni, boy, do they get Star Wars. They get it. They’re speaking the same language that George did in a way that I questioned in the sequels.
We’ll be discussing this and much more on next weeks episode of Making Tracks, and be sure to tune in to episode 234 which arrives this evening on Fantha Tracks Radio, TV and here on the site.
