Mark Hamill's time in a Galaxy Far, Far Away appears to have ended. However, many fans are eager to see the Star Wars legend reprise the role in The Mandalorian and Grogu, or Dave Filoni's planned Star Wars crossover movie, which will end the post-Return of the Jedi era of storytelling.
Admitting that he had "real reservations" about coming back for The Last Jedi, Hamill told The Hollywood Reporter that it was Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher's willingness to return that convinced him to do the same. He also knew that passing on a cameo in The Force Awakens would make him "the most hated man in nerd-dom."
Luke Skywalker's role in those movies still divides fans, but The Mandalorian went a long way in making up for that. In the season 2 finale, the Jedi Master showed off the extent of his powers when he made short work of Moff Gideon's Death Troopers.
While the disappointing sequel trilogy came and went, The Mandalorian remains a special experience for Hamill:
"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."
Luke is arguably still Hamill's most famous role, but the Clown Prince of Crime is a close second. Hamill first lent his voice to The Joker in Batman: The Animated Series, and later reprised the role in various animated movies—Batman: The Killing Joke, for example—and Rocksteady's acclaimed Arkham trilogy of video games.
"It was right after they announced that Michael Keaton was cast as Batman, and the fan community freaked out, 'Oh, he’s Mr. Mom. He’s a comic actor,'" Hamill said of being cast as the iconic villain. "So even though I really wanted the part, I thought, 'If they freaked out about Mr. Mom being Batman, how are they going to feel about Luke Skywalker being the Joker? There’s no way I’m going to get this!'"
"And because I believed that, I was completely calm and relaxed. I just let it rip. I drove out of the parking lot really cocky: 'Top that, try to find a better Joker than that.' People didn’t even believe it was me," he continued. "They thought it was treated or sped up or who knows what. But it was a fundamental reason I got so many interesting roles in voiceover."
Kevin Conroy, who voiced the Caped Crusader, passed away in 2022. At the time, Hamill said he was done voicing The Joker, and hasn't reprised the role since (though with DC Studios pulling the plug on the popular Warner Bros. Animation movies, the opportunity likely hasn't presented itself).
While he remains retired from the role, Hamill confirms he hasn't heard anything about making a comeback. "When they’d asked [about a new project], 'Do want you to do the Joker?' My only question was, 'Is Kevin doing Batman?' If he’s in, I don’t even have to read it. I don’t know whether they’ve tried to get me back, but my agent would know. But not to my knowledge."
Would you like to see more of Hamill in future Star Wars movies or TV shows?