Mark Hamill confirms he’ll be playing a Force Ghost in Star Wars Episode 9

Star Wars Episode 9 Luke Skywalker — Image credit: Disney/Lucasfilm

Let the past die. Kill it if you have to. Star Wars 9 seems to be pretty content with saying goodbye to the old guard for good – and so is Mark Hamill. The Luke Skywalker actor has not only confirmed that he wants December’s finale to be a “curtain call” for him, he’s also revealed that he will be back at a Force ghost in The Rise of Skywalker after his death in Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

During an interview with AP, Hamill was asked whether Star Wars E9 would be the last hurrah for him. In a characteristically forthright response, Hamill says: “I sure hope so!”

Pushed further, Hamill confirms that why he doesn’t want to come back after The Rise of Skywalker is because his story arc has now concluded, at least in his eyes: “I had closure in the last one,” he reasons.

Perhaps inadvertently, the man who has played Luke Skywalker since 1977’s A New Hope has also confirmed what we all probably thought would be the case when it was announced Hamill was returning for the final movie in the trilogy. Yep, he’s back as a Force ghost, despite fading away on Ahch-To at the tail-end of The Last Jedi. No flashbacks, no clones, or any other sort of tricks to bring him back into the fold, which is reassuring.

While Hamill didn’t play his hand too much, he has hinted that it’s going to be brief. “The fact that I’m involved in any capacity,” Hamill reckons, “Is only because of that peculiar aspect of the Star Wars mythology where if you’re a Jedi, you get to come back and make a curtain call as a Force ghost.”

So, we get the chance to say yet one more goodbye to Luke Skywalker, as well giving a fond farewell to the dearly departed duo of Carrie Fisher and Peter Mayhew. Star Wars 9 is going to make us all cry buckets, isn’t it?

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