In an unexpected and crazy year, one of the most unexpected moments in television was seeing Mark Hamill (Star Wars) suit up again as Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars Disney+ original series The Mandalorian. Fans of the show were left reeling after the wild finale that included Hamill’s cameo, and he commemorated the appearance by writing on Twitter Wednesday that it was one of the “greatest gifts,” via Indiewire.
Reflecting on his time on the show, Hamill wrote “Sometimes the greatest gifts are the most unexpected and something you never realized you wanted until it was given.”
See his full tweet below:
Airing on Friday, December 18, the season two finale of The Mandalorian, titled “The Rescue,” seemed like all hope was lost. Then, all of a sudden, Luke Skywalker appeared to save the day with lightsaber in hand. Thanks to advancements in CGI, the show was able to de-age Hamill in his appearance and he looked as he did in the original Star Wars series. Creator of the series, Jon Favreau (Iron Man, Chef), told Good Morning America what it was like having Hamill on set in quote picked up by TVline: “To have Mark Hamill on set filming and us using whatever technology we had available to de-age him and make him look like he did in the old films” — and kept secret — was very special.” Preventing any sort of spoiler was no small feat, and to say fans were overwhelmed by Hamill’s cameo would be the understatement of the year.
On Thursday, Hamill shared another tweet expressing his gratitude to all the fans’ loving reactions to Skywalker’s return: “#NoWords-Seeing fan’s reactions to Luke’s return is something I will cherish forever. Their anticipation seeing the X-Wing/Ep. 6 Robes/a lightsaber/a GREEN lightsaber/a gloved hand/an ungloved hand/a Force choke/R2-was OVERWHELMING & very moving to me-½.” He proceeded to share the Mixed Reactions video of fans’ live reactions to seeing him appear and fight off several dark troopers.
See his full tweet below:
The season two finale of The Mandalorian was directed by Peyton Reed (Ant-Man) and written by Favreau. Stream all episodes on Disney+.