Credit: LucasfilmThe Star Wars universe owes a lot to Mark Hamill – but some fans are calling for Lucasfilm to replace him with another actor.
Hamill’s endearing portrayal of the Tatooine farmboy-turned-Jedi Luke Skywalker was a huge part of what propelled Star Wars: A New Hope (1977) to success – and enabled two more movies, prequel and sequel trilogies and a neverending lineup of Disney+ spinoffs.
Over 45 years since the release of A New Hope, Mark Hamill inevitably looks different today than he did back in the 70s. That worked perfectly for his return as Luke in the sequels, which followed a similar timeline, but for the stories that take place in the wake of the original trilogy, Lucasfilm has had to turn to some movie magic to bring young Luke to life.
In “The Mandalorian,” “The Book of Boba Fett,” and a brief scene in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019), Luke Skywalker is portrayed by a body double boasting Hamill’s de-aged likeness via CGI.
However, some believe that Star Wars should abandon its use of “uncanny” CGI and instead just recast Luke Skywalker with a younger actor to allow for more films and TV shows covering his adventures.
Specifically, fans want Graham Hamilton (who served as Skywalker’s body double in “The Book of Boba Fett”) to step up as the new young Skywalker.
Pictures of Hamilton behind the scenes of the show recently went viral on Twitter, with users sharing their bewilderment at his resemblance to Hamill – and calling for Lucasfilm to cast him instead.
Graham Hamilton behind the scenes in the Book of Boba Fett pic.twitter.com/QEN07jd1dk
— Okiro (@TheFirstOkiro) April 30, 2023
User @baby_yaddle responded that “it’s so funny Lucasfilm found an almost exact double for 30-something Mark Hamill that could have played Luke for another 40 years but instead they had to stick 70 year old Mark Hamill’s de-aged deepfake face on him and replace his dialog with a Ukrainian AI.”
@JohnXuandou agreed, commenting: “Imagine finding the most perfect human that could ever exist for this role, a statistical anomaly, and then deciding that you’re gonna cover his face in a bunch of CGI goop so that he instead of looking like the real person he is, he looks like a weird unnatural version of himself.”
Another user, @WhyyTom, wrote: “Dude we gotta go back to just recasting younger roles if you’re gonna make it. Solo really made everyone too scared to function.”
He has a point. Lucsafilm’s first and only attempt at recasting a member of the original trilogy’s trio did not go down well with audiences. Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) starred Alden Ehrenreich – not Harrison Ford – as Han Solo and swiftly became the first Star Wars film to be classified as a box office bomb.
With Solo as its only reference point, Lucasfilm’s reluctance to recast is understandable. However, considering the eerie resemblance between Hamill and Hamilton – and the sheer number of fans who endorse the latter as a replacement – if there was ever an opportunity to capitalize more on one of the franchise’s most beloved characters, this is it.