Mark Hamill Jokes About Star Wars’ De-Aging Technology

Mark Hamill jokes about Star Wars’ de-aging technology by sharing a badly photoshopped photo of him with young Luke Skywalker’s face over his own.
Mark Hamill is poking fun at Star Wars‘ de-aging technology in a new social media post. Hamill is an American actor best known for portraying Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars franchise. He made his debut as Skywalker in the 1977 film, Star Wars, a role that would propel him into stardom. Hamill would also go on to star in the Star Wars sequels, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. More than 30 years later, he reprised his iconic role as Skywalker in three more Star Wars films after Disney’s acquisition of Lucasfilm.
While Hamill was able to return and portray a now-adult Skywalker for Disney’s Star Wars films, the franchise hit a bit of a bump when it came to The Mandalorian. The Mandalorian is a Disney+ TV series that takes place five years after the events of Return of the Jedi. This would place Skywalker at around 28 years of age in the series. Of course, Hamill wasn’t quite able to pass for 28, but Disney didn’t want to recast Skywalker. Hence, they chose to utilize de-aging technology combined with a stand-in to allow Hamill to portray a younger Skywalker. While it worked, not everyone found the de-aged Skywalker very convincing.
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Now, Hamill is joking about Star Wars’ de-aging technology with his latest Twitter post. The photo sees a very poorly photoshopped image of Hamill with a young Skywalker face over his own. It doesn’t seem as if the de-aging reached the rest of Hamill’s body, though, and his face looks awfully pale. In his caption, Hamill jokes that de-aging technology is getting better every day. Check out the post below:
Gotta admit de-aging technology just gets better & better every day. pic.twitter.com/CHkf5UHoDT
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Those who follow Hamill on social media will be used to his good-natured jokes and wry sense of humor. Of course, The Mandalorian‘s de-aged Skywalker wasn’t nearly as poor as Hamill’s photograph. The de-aged Skywalker received mixed reviews and while he did, indeed, look like Skywalker, viewers noticed that he still looked unnatural. Meanwhile, a YouTuber posted a viral video where he significantly improved The Mandalorian‘s de-aged Skywalker. He ended up being hired by Lucasfilm and it seems the team learned from their mistakes. When a de-aged Skywalker again appeared in The Book of Boba Fett, his appearance was improved.
It’s hard to tell if Hamill is taking a shot at The Mandalorian‘s shortcomings, or just poking fun at the de-aging process as a whole. After all, it is a pretty strange process to wrap one’s mind around. The de-aging process was anything but simple and consisted of Hamill, CGI, a stand-in actor, and a voice created by a computer. Fortunately, though, despite his jokes, Hamill has been nothing but supportive and open to the process. Meanwhile, it has also kept him actively involved in the Star Wars franchise. It’s difficult to say if Hamill’s de-aged version will appear again, as Skywalker has officially been recast for Obi-Wan Kenobi, due to the character being 10 years of age in the series. If another de-aged Skywalker does appear in Star Wars, hopefully it’s a bit more convincing than Hamill’s photoshop skills.
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Source: Mark Hamill
Rachel Ulatowski is a Freelance Movie/TV News Writer for Screen Rant. She works to bring readers the latest news on the shows and movies that are important to them. Rachel especially enjoys writing about celebrity news and sharing the thoughts, struggles, and perspective of some of Hollywood’s biggest stars. In her free time she enjoys reading, writing, and watching anything Marvel, DC, Doctor Who, or Star Wars.