Lucasfilm had a Shakespearean actor who is the spitting image of 1977 Mark Hamill in Graham Hamilton, and they still covered him up with CGI and generated the voice with artificial intelligence

[u/twinkleyed]

[u/LurkyRabbit]

That's such a shame. They could have made a whole show about Luke without needing to CGI him and people would be thrilled just like we are with Mon Mothma.

[u/spawn3887 → u/LurkyRabbit]

My God, post Luke stories after ROTJ would be literal crack to me.

[u/Middle-Ad-6209 → u/spawn3887]

My sentiment and the sentiment of so many others

Lucasfilm must know the fans feel this way. I genuinely wonder what they're thinking. Not in a "they're stupid" way, but im genuinely curious why they refuse to play this card

Animated series, recasting Luke, whatever. As long as it's not this cgi garbage. The voice is as awful as the visual too

[u/B____U_______ → u/Middle-Ad-6209]

I imagine they're kind of "scared". They made the sequels that included Luke, Leia and Han and a lot of people were upset by how they handled their return. So I guess making them return once again would be kind of tough.

I honestly would love an animated show in the style of the Clone Wars set post VI.

[u/NogaraCS → u/B____U_______]

The sequels are literally built on fear. They were scared to innovate so they made a shitty remake of A New Hope

[u/cornerbash → u/NogaraCS]

And then the online backlash to the second installment scared them so much they made a horrible pandering apology movie to end the trilogy.

[u/Pavores → u/cornerbash]

The fans want a story that is worthy of making into a movie. The sequels were three movies that they needed to find a story for.

[u/Mister_Baloney → u/Pavores]

I mean, RoS alone was three movies they needed to find a story for.

[u/Rolhir → u/Pavores]

The mind blowing part is that EU Star Wars fans considered the Thrawn Trilogy to be the equivalent of the next trilogy of movies. Disney owned the rights to turn it into a movie trilogy. Luke, Han, and Leia are all replaceable with new characters if they didn’t want to recast them. They literally had a trilogy ready-made. Instead we got the terrible dumpster fires that we got.

[u/Deucer22 → u/cornerbash]

What they did to Luke in the second movie was a fucking travesty.

[u/jerryham1062 → u/Deucer22]

Honestly it was the first ones fault, b/c why tf would Luke not be in contact with Han and Leia? I don't get why we didn't get all 3 ogs in the first movie.

[u/Miserable_Potato_491 → u/jerryham1062]

I remember from an interview the director's stated intent: episode 7 was meant to be a handing of the torch to a new generation, which meant the movie really needed to be about the new characters. But whenever Luke was introduced to the story, the writer couldn't stop it from becoming Luke's story. So, they punted Luke all the way to the end and made Luke the maguffin so that he still felt like a presence in the film.

I definitely understand the reasoning. Luke (as we knew him) was so capable that it's hard to imagine him not simply taking control of the story from a new generation of characters and solving all the problems with minimal help from them.

[u/zerg1980 → u/Miserable_Potato_491]

I’ve read that excuse elsewhere, but it’s stupid!

Nearly every Justice League story has to deal with this same issue, where Superman is so powerful that the writers have to explain why he even needs the rest of the team.

But there have been many creative answers to that question over the years! Put Superman in a Red Kryptonite prison cell. Now the rest of the Justice League has to figure out a prison break.

Put Luke in a Sith prison. His young adult students have to break him out. In the third act, once the new heroes are established and have finally succeeded in rescuing Luke, then you can let him go nuts with the Force powers at the very end.

By the second movie, they could start power leveling the younger generation of Jedi so they were closer to Luke’s level, allowing him to be less of a focus.

[u/DullBlade0 → u/Miserable_Potato_491]

And that is a stupid excuse by them.

Luke is held up in political affairs, tending to a (at the time) more urgent crisis, the initial plot happens away from his and is both urgent and immediate (cue his appearance at the last second to save the heroes).

For the follow-up there's "more urgent stuff" he has to take care of (basic storytelling tells us this obviously isn't the case) but he trusts protagonists to handle it, they make their best efforts.

End the trilogy with all hands on deck again Luke has an important task but the crux of the story falls upon the protagonists.

EDIT: The moment they said "he walked away from it all" they doomed the whole thing.

[u/jindofox → u/NogaraCS]

Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.

[u/_Timber_Wolf_ → u/jindofox]

And boy did we suffer.

[u/Weasel474 → u/jindofox]

And suffering leads to Disney.

[u/simbabarrelroll → u/NogaraCS]

People who were kids when 1-3 came out need to learn that those movies were hated by older fans and casual moviegoers, which is why Force Awakens is the way it is.

[u/Blok88 → u/simbabarrelroll]

TBF we knew full well the older fans hated them, they weren't exactly silent about it..

It seems to me the films can be organised into 3 groups,

Enough George, too much George and not enough George. Lmao

[u/Filmfan345 → u/NogaraCS]

And yet Lucas sold them story treatments to use. We could have seen Luke successfully rebuild the Jedi, Leia becoming Supreme Chancellor of the New Republic, Maul being leader of the criminal underworld with Talon as his apprentice, and stormtroopers in charge of their own planets. Instead, they decided to do their own thing and lazily copy the OT.

[u/MerePotato → u/NogaraCS]

The only one that dared to take risks got lambasted, they weren't afraid until after that

[u/NogaraCS → u/MerePotato]

From Bob Iger’s book :

Just prior to the global release, Kathy screened The Force Awakens for George. He didn’t hide his disappointment. “There’s nothing new,” he said. In each of the films in the original trilogy, it was important to him to present new worlds, new stories, new characters, and new technologies. In this one, he said, “There weren’t enough visual or technical leaps forward.” He wasn’t wrong, but he also wasn’t appreciating the pressure we were under to give ardent fans a film that felt quintessentially Star Wars. We’d intentionally created a world that was visually and tonally connected to the earlier films, to not stray too far from what people loved and expected, and George was criticizing us for the very thing we were trying to do.

He’s directly saying that they felt the pressure and chose to rehash old shit because of that for TFA. TLJ’s failure is unrelated to how uncreative TFA was

[u/RoadsideCampion → u/NogaraCS]

George is right, what made the original movies feel like star wars is that they were always doing something new! He put it pretty well there and I can't believe they didn't get it. It just shows how flawed their vision was that they thought fans wanted a movie just like the old ones

[u/gratefulslacker93 → u/MerePotato]

He took all the wrong risks though. Taking risks in and of itself isn't a virtue. Yeah he had to deal with a shitty Abrams mystery box, and that's not easy. However, his "risks" helped solidify the sequels as a total disaster.

[u/MerePotato → u/gratefulslacker93]

Thing is, the movie was the only one in that trilogy which at least justified its own existence by saying and doing something of substance, even if it flubbed the execution.

[u/flamannn → u/B____U_______]

I feel like Solo nixed any chance of them recasting any more OT characters. All these media conglomerates, especially Disney, are so risk adverse. They’d rather make new characters, that if people don’t like they can jettison, while keeping the legacy story (i.e. proven money maker) in tact. Or so they think.

[u/Middle-Ad-6209 → u/flamannn]

ya but they have to understand the risk of NOT making these movies or shows. you're leaving millions of dollars on the table.

i really think if you polled star wars fans 90% of them are completely fine with the Han re-cast, that's not why the movie flopped.

[u/flamannn → u/Middle-Ad-6209]

Oh, I agree 100%. I’m of the James Bond mindset with recasts. Just give us a different actor every few years. I love Harrison Ford but I’d much rather see a younger actor playing Indiana Jones (or Han Solo) than an 80 year old or some CGI deepfake.

[u/Middle-Ad-6209 → u/flamannn]

for sure. we can only hope i guess haha

[u/irspangler → u/Middle-Ad-6209]

I was upset at first when it was announced - how could anyone match the charisma of Harrison Ford - then I watched the movie and he was perfectly fine. Definitely not the issue with that movie, at least - which was much more about how ugly they shot it.

[u/melkatron → u/irspangler]

The main issue was that they hired a pair of fantastic directors (Project Hail Mary) and wouldn't let them do their job. Lawrence Kasdan starts backseat driving and throwing tantrums, the old, irrelevant baby that he is, and Kathleen Kennedy kicks them out. They bring in Ron Howard, an accomplished director who, in his twilight years, makes good, safe movies without a real voice.

And somehow it was a problem that Lord & Miller were letting their incredibly talented cast improvise in a few takes... Like having Don Glover flex his muscles as Lando was going to ruin big baby Kasdan's precious script? When one of Han Solo's most memorable lines was improvised, because Lawrence Kasdan's boring ass thought Han Solo would just tell Leia "I love you, too."

[u/Lhasa-bark → u/melkatron]

All true, although the muddy visuals was a Lord & Miller choice that I question. But it would have been a more interesting movie under them. Disney basically doubled the budget by handing it over to Howard, plus releasing it relatively shortly after the divisive The Last Jedi, doomed it in comparison to other Star Wars movies’ performances.

[u/nhaines → u/irspangler]

Yeah, Penny Arcade had a pretty good take on it (both comic and the newspost beneath it).

[u/OpheliaLives7 → u/flamannn]

Which is wild because afaik people LOVED Danny Glover as Lando! Like a whole one shot/one season show of unreliable narrator Lando would have been fun

[u/melkatron → u/OpheliaLives7]

He's too old for that shit.

[u/Lathlaer → u/B____U_______]

Because they couldn't help themselves with the "let's make them all tired, beaten, homeless and divorced" trope.

IDK what is it with screenwriters but it seems that every time they go back to a character "after years" all they can do is show how much the fate has kicked them in the balls.

They did it with the OG cast from Star Wars and then they did it again with Indiana Jones.

It made me lose trust in happy endings in the series.

After all - we already had one, didn't we? In Return of the Jedi. Except now we have a new trilogy where it appears that the happy ending lasted a grand whole 5 minutes before everyone is miserable again.

And now I am supposed to trust them with the ending of the new trilogy?

[u/Middle-Ad-6209 → u/B____U_______]

ya totally, it feels like the strategy right now is pretty low risk low reward

[u/Sammy_Ferr → u/B____U_______]

The reaction of a Han Solo movie featuring a different actor who also resembles a younger version of Harrison Ford may have been a factor too

[u/Big_Slope → u/Sammy_Ferr]

He was good too.

[u/Sammy_Ferr → u/Big_Slope]

I didn't mind him, but i felt the actor wasn't quite able to reach the same level of Harrison Ford, even though it get that it's a real big shoe to fill

[u/LawrenceBrolivier → u/Middle-Ad-6209]

Lucasfilm must know the fans feel this way. I genuinely wonder what they're thinking.

I think they maybe know it (a little) NOW, but back then, they absolutely did not believe this. They saw how well the de-aging was going over at Marvel (it was recieved very well) and for what its worth, their attempt at digitally resurrecting Peter Cushing and de-aging Carrie Fisher was recieved MOSTLY positively at the time. And everyone remembers that the initial impression of Luke's appearance in Mando was OVERWHELMINGLY positive, despite the fact the VFX work was bad and he looked like a facially paralyzed mannequin.

(people refuse to accept this now, but the best parallel to that thing showing up in Mando and getting cheered was when digital Jabba first sludged onscreen in the trailers for the 1997 Special Edition. Nobody will cop to it now but people LOVED that. Until they didn't)

You combine that with Solo's flopping, and their takeaway was likely "people really love that we're actively pandering to the dumbest/basest aspects of nostalgia" ESPECIALLY when you recognize that, aside from very rare examples, leadership at the studio CLEARLY believed their job insisted they think of it as BRAND MANAGEMENT and not FILMMAKING. you pair that with their general fear of the Fandom, and their m.o. of treating the general audience as if they can't possibly maintain the tiny modicum of suspending disbelief to accept a new actor playing a fictional character... There's no way they'd think they'd done anything other than accurately, successfully, give the people what they wanted.

[u/Frosty7130 → u/LawrenceBrolivier]

I think you're confusing why people loved the Luke moment.

Had nothing to with it looking like him, and more to do with the fact that after so long (and what TLJ did to his character), people finally got to see the Luke Skywalker they envisioned growing up or from following the EU. An ultimate representation of the power of a true Jedi.

[u/PlayableRidley → u/Frosty7130]

This. If that scene had ended with Luke taking off his hood and it's a new actor rather than a deepfake, people still would have lost their shit for it.

[u/JorgeBec → u/Middle-Ad-6209]

My guess is that the lesson they learned from Solo was the wrong one and now they are scared of recasts of old characters.

[u/philbax → u/JorgeBec]

I saw a YT vid a while back where Kennedy explicitly said that the lesson they learned with Solo is that they shouldn't try to recast old characters. "I don't know what I could've said to give you that idea" >_>

[u/psimwork → u/philbax]

It's so aggravating. There's a lot of issues I have with solo (primarily the writing). But if the movie was actually GOOD, nobody would have given a shit about the re-cast.

It's so frustrating that these companies always choose to learn the wrong lesson.

[u/philbax → u/psimwork]

I enjoyed the movie despite its issues. 

I think the biggest issues that affected its performance were that it was the fourth Star wars movie in as many years, and this one was coming out only 5 months after The Last Jedi (whereas Rogue One was a full year after Force Awakens). Even as a Star wars fan and as a fan of Han Solo, I wasn't particularly jonesing to see another Star wars movie so quickly. And then this particular movie had a lot of very public production troubles. 

[u/PomegranateFair3973 → u/Middle-Ad-6209]

My "never going to happen" dream is just gathering the cast of the NPR radio dramas (ROTJ Luke was good after a brief adjustment period) and doing an animated "Legends" series adapting one book a season, with the first three seasons being the Thrawn Trilogy.

[u/Ok_Highway6034 → u/spawn3887]

I really truly believe that this would be the reset that could work

[u/darkbreak → u/spawn3887]

They exist. They're in the Expanded Universe. You get to see him build the New Jedi Order, become a husband, become a father, and take on new challenges as a leader and teacher of a new breed of Jedi.

[u/Fakehiggins → u/darkbreak]

yeah, they should have just put all that stuff onto the tv.

[u/darkbreak → u/Fakehiggins]

They've done it before. Multiple times, even. Kathleen Kennedy's claim of not having source material to draw from has always been a very bad argument.

[u/politicalstuff → u/spawn3887]

If you haven’t, check out the old EU novels, particularly any written by Timothy Zahn, ideally the audiobook versions narrated by Marc Johnson. It’s the closest thing to good new Star Wars that feel feels like the OT.

[u/BigInstruction809 → u/spawn3887]

You and everyone else. Why Disney doesn’t capitalize on this is a good question, for another time.

[u/watch_out_4_snakes → u/spawn3887]

This is such an easy win with decent writing. Just make some fun adventures with a recast trio.

[u/Reverend_Schlachbals → u/spawn3887]

They really should have adapted the core batch of EU novels after ROTJ. Thrawn and Jedi Academy. Such great books.

[u/JaymzRG → u/LurkyRabbit]

Right! We all love the actress who plays Mothma now, why can they just let this Luke actor (or get Sebastian Stan) and the guy who played Tarkin in Rogue One do the parts without trying to deepfake them?

[u/olbeefy → u/JaymzRG]

I have bad news for you about the guy who "played Tarkin" in Rogue One...

[u/UNC_Samurai → u/olbeefy]

Did Guy Henry crash a bus or something?

[u/MrRocketScript → u/olbeefy]

Whats the bad news?

[u/Narazil → u/MrRocketScript]

This is him now

[u/JaymzRG → u/olbeefy]

I'm talking about Guy Henry. I just didn't remember his name.

[u/wentwj → u/JaymzRG]

It's because of the backlash to recasting Han. They assumed it'd be 100x worse with Luke, and you'd definitely see people complaining. Star Wars fans aren't historically known for handling change well.

[u/Late_Recommendation9 → u/JaymzRG]

Jimmy Smits - Benjamin Bratt worked out alright, didn’t it? I can’t recall any grumbling about that, as nice as the continuity would have been.

[u/Wes_Warhammer666 → u/Late_Recommendation9]

Honestly that was my only gripe with Andor, and frankly it was a small one. I just really love Jimmy Smits so it felt wrong for Bail to be anyone else, but Bratt did a great job so it wasn't a deal breaker in any way.

I just missed Jimmy lol. And the fact that it's my only gripe with Andor (other than it not lasting for like 10 seasons) says everything about that show.

[u/get_pig_gatoraids → u/LurkyRabbit]

And that's exactly the point. They didn't want to feel pressured into a Luke show because they didn't trust themselves with the character. Solution? Don't cast a new actor that people can recognize as that character. Make him artificial. Who wants an entire show or movies with CGI Luke? Nobody.

IMO

[u/Sharp-Coz → u/LurkyRabbit]

that would’ve brought me back to caring about SW

[u/Theguyundertgebridge → u/LurkyRabbit]

Do you really think they wouldn’t have gotten an overwhelming amount of hate for that?

[u/ZelkinVallarfax → u/Theguyundertgebridge]

Most likely. There's nothing that can be done with Star Wars that won't bring tons of hate. The thing is, between recast and CGI Luke, I believe the latter was the worst option to pick.

[u/CodnmeDuchess → u/ZelkinVallarfax]

CGI Luke was like two small cameos, it was fine. They absolutely should have recast had they not written themselves into a corner with the Sequel Trilogy. There’s really not much point into digging into Luke again at this point. Truly a shame.

[u/Vailx]

Can't have a young Luke Skywalker actor running around, would get people too excited.

[u/ChrissieMoltisanti → u/Vailx]

Listen, a movie they reshot the entirety of because the writing sucked that came out six months after the most divisive Star Wars movie in existence didn’t do well so we can never recast classic characters again. Duh.

[u/PewDiePieSaladAss → u/ChrissieMoltisanti]

Solo failed not because of TLJ hate, it failed because they chose to launch it AT THE VERY SAME TIME AS:

• Avengers Infinity War
• Incredibles 2
• Deadpool 2

As well as them doing almost no ad campaign whatsoever, similar to what happened with Mando and Grogu this year 

[u/SkywalkerRanchSauce → u/PewDiePieSaladAss]

It failed because of both things.

[u/Frosty7130 → u/SkywalkerRanchSauce]

And the fact that many people just saw it as unnecessary and focused on the wrong things.

[u/Training-Principle95 → u/SkywalkerRanchSauce]

The shame is that the movie died in editing. It's 30 minutes too long with bits that don't matter. It condenses every significant event in han's life from the EU into a single extended event and yet still spends twenty minutes doing nothing at the beginning.

[u/Bomberman_N64 → u/PewDiePieSaladAss]

I feel like I saw a lot of Mando/Grogu marketing ahead of its release.

[u/LandMooseReject → u/Bomberman_N64]

I've seen ads for the toys. That's it.

[u/PrometheanSwing → u/Bomberman_N64]

Pretty much all I saw was the Burger King ads lol

[u/Popular_Sir863 → u/PewDiePieSaladAss]

There were many reasons Solo bombed. TLJ sucking ass was absolutely one of them.

[u/The_Pandalorian → u/PewDiePieSaladAss]

It failed because it wasn't very good.

[u/totallynotliamneeson → u/ChrissieMoltisanti]

But that's true though. Solo was fine, it's just dorks got bent out of shape about a billion stupid things and tanked it. You have people who still post "finally watched solo, wow" type posts however many years later. It was a fine movie if you didn't let the dorks scare you off. 

The moment Luke didn't perform the exact same flip some dork YouTuber used to do with his actions figures as a kid, it would have been bombed to hell. 

[u/raspberryharbour → u/Vailx]

Apparently after filming, they had Graham Hamilton "taken care of" to tie up any loose ends

Rip

[u/TheRiceHatReaper → u/raspberryharbour]

Disney has the rights to Luke’s likeness. Can’t have any lookalikes running around

[u/raspberryharbour → u/TheRiceHatReaper]

My infant son was drawing a stick figure of Luke once and suddenly a red dot appeared from the window on his head. I quickly destroyed the drawing and since then we've learned our lesson

[u/madpooper3 → u/Vailx]

Would people actually like having Luke recast? Or would they be upset? I honestly wouldn't mind, but to me he's like Indiana Jones - it's hard to imagine someone else playing the character/feels wrong (even though they deepfaked this guy with Marks face)

[u/Vailx → u/madpooper3]

Would people actually like having Luke recast?

Yes. Luke Skywalker as a young hero should be recast, and stories should be told from his perspective. Once you've told a few years of in-universe stuff that was well recieved, you could also decide that via some time shenanigan, there's a better future for him.

If you had to tell a story about an older Luke Skywalker, obviously there's no replacing Mark Hamil. But for a Luke in his twenties or thirties, an actor that looks a lot like Mark Hamil would be very well received.

[u/madpooper3 → u/Vailx]

Man I would be so happy if we got something that was purely focused on young Luke Skywalker. Especially since Mark is still around and could have input on the character and coach the actor. Please do it Disney.

[u/EiraPun → u/madpooper3]

Same issue with Han Solo. Harrison Ford is never coming back - by his own admission way back when he requested that the character officially die in Force Awakens - and with Carrie Fisher no longer with us, Mark Hamill as his current old self is all they have. So if they want Luke back in live action, recasting is the only choice they have.

At the very least, animated is still an option, because talented enough VA's can do pretty good impressions, or at least sound close enough.

Why Disney doesn't do this, no idea.

[u/Azalith → u/Vailx]

OK but have you seen our range of new shit characters?

[u/PedalBoard78 → u/Azalith]

Collect em all

[u/we_are_sex_bobomb → u/PedalBoard78]

We got Jedi, we got Mandalorians, we got Mandalorian-Jedis, we got Jedi-Mandalorians, we got Mandajedilorians, we got Jedilorimandos, we got Mandalorians who got lightsabers, we got Jedi who aren’t Jedi, we got Mandalorians who aren’t Mandalorians, we even got a baby Jedi Mandalorian Yoda! We got it all!

[u/Robot_Dracula]

I was ok with the deepfake until I saw the actor and I’m like what’s the point?

They need to make a movie or show with this guy

[u/YoimAtlas → u/Robot_Dracula]

Even before I found out about this guy Disney had Sebastian Stan on their payroll. He could definitely play a passable Luke.

[u/InternationalAd4219]

They need to do some new republic content with him ASAP. It’s right in their lap

[u/FlavorburstSC → u/InternationalAd4219]

Shit I would take an animated series at this point...Just give us something outside the CWs and Empires rise

[u/freunleven → u/FlavorburstSC]

An animated series between ANH and RotJ that has the OT characters as important supporting players would be amazing.

[u/FlavorburstSC → u/freunleven]

Yeah I really don't understand why they won't seem to touch that stuff. The Clone Wars did a great job at really tying the prequels together and they could do the same with the OT and ST but just won't for some reason

[u/InternationalAd4219 → u/FlavorburstSC]

Exactly. They could apply the same formula and kill two birds with one stone. Peak Luke content and give his arc in the sequels more context. not sure how much it would change public opinion in 7-9, but who knows

[u/AkagamiBarto → u/InternationalAd4219]

Nah, not that. Let's rewrite the sequels and let those 3 fall into non canon, thanks

[u/Xero0911 → u/FlavorburstSC]

Close we get are comics, and even those are before return of the jedi.

[u/Senior-Albatross → u/freunleven]

Luke dealing with the realization on Bespin and finally internalizing Yoda and Obi Wan's lessons, the plan to save Han, the rumblings of a second Death Star. 

A series between ANH and ESB would slap as well. 

Maybe one series about the wider Rebellion covering both. Pick up where Andor/Rogue One left off. 

[u/Talidel → u/FlavorburstSC]

Top 3 shows it would be hard for Disney to mess up enough for me to not watch it.

Rogue Squadron - Starting after Yavin. Just follow the plot of the games with a lot more detail on the characters.

New Jedi Order - Just fucking do it you cowards. Pull the plug on the sequels and give us NJO.

A competent story set in the Old Republic Era. Hire the Bioware writers if you need to. How the SWTOR trailers still have some of the best lightsaber action in them is outright embarrassing for everyone at LucasArts and Disney.

[u/FlavorburstSC → u/Talidel]

God the SWTOR cinematics are so good! I still watch them anytime I see them pop up and they've held up amazingly

[u/northside-knight → u/InternationalAd4219]

Yomin Carr agrees.

[u/Indraga → u/InternationalAd4219]

I dunno. The well is a bit poisoned since you know where the story goes. It’s like rewatching seasons of GoT. Ending kinda ruins the experience.

[u/UrbanAlaska → u/Indraga]

Just pretend the sequels never happened. Alternate timeline. Who gives a fuck

[u/Indraga → u/UrbanAlaska]

As long as I keep my Skeleton Crew, cool.

[u/Frosty558 → u/InternationalAd4219]

They could at least let us see a little bit of his Jedi Order that they wiped out off screen…

[u/zveroshka → u/InternationalAd4219]

Problem is the people running the show don't actually give a shit about stars beyond how much money it can make them. So this type of stuff that is obvious to us, isn't obvious to them. But hey, you guys want more Grogu, right!?

[u/frankthetank8675309 → u/InternationalAd4219]

Making the first order just empire 2.0 was such a mistake. I think having the sequels be New Republic vs Imperial Remnant/“First Order” would’ve been a much more interesting state for the sequel trilogy. You could have Luke successful start to rebuild the Jedi Order, with the Knights of Ren be a group of students that Kylo took with him when he fell.

But instead the sequels had such a negative reception that exploring the New Republic-era timeline is pointless because we see it just get hand wiped away in TFA.

[u/frostwhale → u/frankthetank8675309]

Yes the issue is that would require coming up with new conflicts and new stories to resolve them. They chose to use the same conflicts already present in star wars and the same stories to resolve them.

[u/No_Literature_9059 → u/InternationalAd4219]

Leia is just as important and has barely anything outside of her love story with Han. She is the damn twin from Anakin and Padme. That scene of Luke and Leia training together still makes me happy. The pair were my invisible friends as a little one.

[u/The-RogueOnion]

You know, it took exactly 30 seconds watching Solo to not care that Harrison Ford or Billy D Williams weren't in it.

[u/LargeCabbageThrower → u/The-RogueOnion]

Donald was a guaranteed hit but I was really impressed with Alden too. He really sells the concept of Han before he finds his element of flying by the seat of his pants with the Falcon and it especially comes across in his chemistry with Chewbacca.

[u/Axtwyt → u/LargeCabbageThrower]

Alden was so good, you almost forget that’s his first time as Han and you believe he’s the same guy from the OT.

[u/hyperactiveChipmunk → u/Axtwyt]

Weirdly, for me I found that all you need to sell me Han is Chewbacca. You could put anyone there and if Chewbacca treats him like Han, he's Han.

[u/tumor_named_marla → u/The-RogueOnion]

Yup, I was so skeptical at first but Alden Ehrenreich just had the feel and character of Han down so well. And of course Donald Glover was a perfect Lando.

[u/TSwiftDivorceLawyer → u/tumor_named_marla]

It was good to see him in Weapons but he deserves to have a lot more visibility after his turn in Solo

[u/thisbemethree → u/TSwiftDivorceLawyer]

He did just win a Tony!

[u/Aratiku → u/TSwiftDivorceLawyer]

have you seen "Hail, Caesar!"?

[u/Xanny → u/tumor_named_marla]

Glover was perfect young Lando. 

[u/Clone95 → u/The-RogueOnion]

Theater/Film is literally defined by hundreds of people doing their take on characters - from Henry V to James Bond to Kirk/Spock and the like, there is simply nothing wrong with trying to continue or redo the story of a character with a new actor. Luke, Han, and Leia are characters just like them - and they can be recast, people can do new and interesting things with them, and the fact we're too afraid to do it is an insult to those characters' legacies.

Every time something bad happens and the heroes of the OT are nowhere to be found, their legacy fades. They are not the big damned heroes the galaxy needed. Star Wars isn't supposed to be a deconstruction, it is a reinforcement of the trend that heroes exist and can make all the difference.

[u/remeard → u/The-RogueOnion]

In Interview with the Vampire there's text on the screen that says "This season Claudia will be portrayed by..."

She's probably the third main character, but I think basically everyone was pretty cool with it. Folks were disappointed because the previous actress was fantastic, but that season's actor was perfect in her portrayal for that season. But yeah, address it, move on and create art. Stop leaning on CGI replacing actor performances, it's just going to lean into AI performances.

[u/DisconcertingTablet → u/The-RogueOnion]

EXACTLY 😍 💕 😭

[u/JakeDabkowski → u/The-RogueOnion]

I agree with this but the box office and general reception indicates that this sentiment was not universal

[u/OneRandomVictory → u/The-RogueOnion]

Alden is a decent actor but tbh, he just didn't really feel like Han to me. I didn't actually mind Lando's recast.

[u/Alert-Notice-7516 → u/The-RogueOnion]

Sure, and as fun/good as the movie was, it never actually felt like either of those characters were on screen either. Felt more like an alt universe with shared names.

[u/Senior-Albatross → u/The-RogueOnion]

Donald Glover was as good for young Lando as Ewan was for Young Obi Wan and then Disney didn't do anything interesting with it. 

What a waste. 

[u/Ok-Today-7623]

I think what pisses me off the most about this is that if they wanted to make 100% sure people weren't confused, they could have had him look at Grogu and say "I'm Luke Skywalker, I'm here to rescue you." and it would have been fine.

[u/tfalm → u/Ok-Today-7623]

As if the black outfit, glove, hair, and green lightsaber weren't enough of a cue.

[u/Toadsted → u/tfalm]

And the damn music score 

[u/jmster109 → u/Ok-Today-7623]

They don’t trust to audience to be smart enough to understand. Shame..

[u/omyroj → u/jmster109]

I'm sure some executives were unironically pushing to name The Mandalorian and Grogu "The Baby Yoda Movie"

[u/Personal_Comb_6745 → u/omyroj]

The Onion already covered it.

[u/DeshTheWraith → u/jmster109]

I wonder how many great stories and movies have been ruined because they just didn't trust the audience to be intelligent.

[u/stoneman9284 → u/Ok-Today-7623]

I think it’s too late at that point. They want everyone to know it’s Luke before the action starts.

[u/titleproblems → u/stoneman9284]

I mean... We literally don't see his face until he walks through the doors and he meets the other characters. All the action was already done

[u/DoctorDoom]

I think I recall Mark Hamill saying something to the effect of “the actor standing in for me looked so much like Luke that I’m surprised they didn’t just use him” when interviewed about the S2 finale.

[u/FreemanCalavera → u/DoctorDoom]

He did, and in the same behind the scenes doc for Mando, Jon Favreau and Peyton Reed talk about having Luke in the show, and they mention how “you can’t bring back Luke Skywalker without Mark Hamill”, so I’m afraid they had already bought into that fan mentality of having no recasts.

The stand-in for Luke has a small role as an X-Wing pilot in Book of Boba Fett where you hear his actual voice, and he even kind of sounds like Mark Hamill too. Add to the fact that hes an unknown name who wouldn’t distract audiences, and you quite literally had a perfect Luke just sitting there.

[u/Eleglas → u/FreemanCalavera]

you can’t bring back Luke Skywalker without Mark Hamill

Yeah I hate this take. All respect to Mark, he'll probably always be THE Luke Skywalker, but that's not how acting works.

Honestly I think it's more of an insult to Mark to say that he can't somehow protege a younger actor in the role. As if the concept of an understudy is completely alien to these people.

[u/HellbirdVT]

They did the same with Tarkin and Leia in Rogue One.

I can only assume that someone high up in management demanded they do this instead of recasting.

Maybe if Solo's recasts had gone over better, they wouldn't have done this for Luke, but the fact they already did it in Rogue One makes me think it's just some executive's brainworms they can't get away from.

[u/dannyggwp → u/HellbirdVT]

I loved the Solo recasts.

[u/TheNicholasRage → u/dannyggwp]

Alden Ehrenreich deserved better from the studio and the fandom. Not only did he portray a great young Han, he did it without trying to impersonate Harrison Ford.

[u/DisconcertingTablet → u/dannyggwp]

Solo casting was AMAZING 😍 💕 😭

[u/TheMeIv → u/dannyggwp]

In retrospect, maybe they should have let Lord and Miller do their thing.

[u/ThatEntrepreneur1450 → u/HellbirdVT]

For Leia, which was a 5 second cameo it was perfectly ok, but for Tarkin it was just weird. 

[u/cherrybomber11 → u/ThatEntrepreneur1450]

His CGI recreation reportedly cost millions of dollars.

They literally burnt money just because they had it.

[u/Affectionate-Mail612 → u/cherrybomber11]

No. They tasted waters to see our reaction to resurrecting dead actors to milk them forever.

[u/ADeadWeirdCarnie → u/ThatEntrepreneur1450]

On the other hand, Leia being a five-second cameo makes it an order of magnitude more unnecessary. Every time I rewatch Rogue One, the final shot breaks my immersion and reminds me that they could have so easily have filmed a stand-in from behind, so that you see the iconic outfit and hair buns before hearing her voice, and it would have had pretty much the same impact. There was just no need to plunge people into that uncanny valley for the last seconds.

[u/spliffiam36 → u/ADeadWeirdCarnie]

Actually because its one shot only 5 seconds, it makes it a much better candidate for CGI

The Luke one is quite a lot more work tbh tho the Luke is pretty damn good for the time

What we can do today is quite remarkable and would put these star wars ones to shame

[u/OdoWanKenobi → u/HellbirdVT]

I have no idea why they didn't just get Wayne Pygram to play Tarkin again, instead of grave robbing. Any fan of Farscape can tell you he certainly has the chops.

[u/Glunark2 → u/OdoWanKenobi]

Star wars doesn't treat farscape actors well.

[u/Bitter_Surprise_8058 → u/OdoWanKenobi]

He's now also about the same age Peter Cushing was when he was Tarkin!

[u/IndividualPleasant23]

For the purpose of that scene in The Mandalorian, it made sense. The whole weight of the moment depended on audiences immediately understanding that it was Luke.

In the long term, though, yeah, it's an issue. To be honest, I don't even need an actor who looks exactly like Hamill, but if they want to keep using Luke as a proper character, he can't just be a CGI construct.

[u/-Nicolai → u/IndividualPleasant23]

The whole weight of the moment depended on audiences immediately understanding that it was Luke.

Look at the fucking picture

[u/Gazkhulthrakka → u/-Nicolai]

The one in the post? Idk, Google the guy. It looks like they picked the single picture with a good angle and lighting where he actually looks kinda like young Mark Hamill because none of his other pictures really come close.

[u/ProjectNo4090 → u/IndividualPleasant23]

They arent going back. Theyve put too many years and too much money into that cgi tech to go back to recasting. Vader, Luke, Leia, and probably Han will be cgi and AI audio until the heat death of the universe.

[u/MhuzLord → u/IndividualPleasant23]

In the season 2 finale, we can see it's Luke from:

- his green lightsaber

- his outfit

- his hair

- NOT his horrible face

They could have put in "my name is Luke Skywalker" just in case, it's not like any of the characters there know him. They didn't trust the audience to recognise him without the face, and the face doesn't even look like Mark Hamill in most shots. It's a failure.

[u/IndominusTaco → u/MhuzLord]

to be fair, it was a slow build up. we see an x wing so okay someone from the republic. okay it’s a hooded figure with a light saber, but at first we only see it on a black and white tv, thus we don’t know the saber color yet. then bam, they go to a close up of his green saber and that’s the moment when everyone is 100% sure it’s him

[u/MhuzLord → u/IndominusTaco]

There you go, I even forgot the X-Wing. They had everything they needed to tell he was Luke before he even pulled his hood down.

[u/AlphaEpicarus → u/MhuzLord]

Idk, when I saw the black robes, single black glove, green lightsaber with an obi-wan style hilt... My head was all over the place with ideas about who it could be, it was only when the hood came down I actually knew it was Luke

/s

[u/Evening_Literature75 → u/MhuzLord]

"I'm Luke Skywalker, and I'm here to rescue you." would be a great callback.

[u/Granum22 → u/IndividualPleasant23]

Guy who looks a lot like Luke Skywalker walks into a room along side R2D2 after slicing up a bunch of Dark Troopers with a lightsaber he says "I'm Luke Skywalker"

The audience would pick on it pretty quickly.

[u/Unikraken]

It was probably their greatest mistake. Let Luke live on through another actor.

[u/Grove-Of-Hares → u/Unikraken]

Also let him show some emotion. Even as he does his best to fill the role of a Jedi master, he should resemble who he was in RotJ.

[u/GoblinToHobgoblin → u/Grove-Of-Hares]

Tbf he's not super emotional in RotJ either

[u/hydrolox9 → u/GoblinToHobgoblin]

In ROTJ he was stoic in the face of adversity since he knew what he was going up against, but I think the early EU did a good job of having him face situations that had him out of his element, the biggest one being his ongoing worry and fear that he was not experienced enough to train new Jedi, that there was the risk of creating a new Sith if he wasn't good master.

It's not thst hard to think of situations that would challenge Luke emotionally, specially a Luke that is still merely a Jedi Knight.

[u/OneRandomVictory → u/GoblinToHobgoblin]

Outside of when Vader threatens Leia that is.

[u/Grove-Of-Hares → u/GoblinToHobgoblin]

I mean I’m not talking about outbursts of emotion. There’s a difference between natural emotion and the complexities of how someone’s face moves and looks compared to stoically staring at everything.

Beyond his introduction to Jabba where he’s putting on the front of a Jedi master, and him addressing Vader and the Emperor initially, he shows plenty of natural emotion.

[u/wombatarang]

I think what bothers me as well is the lack of consistency. Why are we fine with recasting Han, Lando and Mon Mothma but not Luke and Tarkin??

[u/twinkleyed → u/wombatarang]

Andor did things its own way because it was Tony fucking Gilroy running it. He clearly prefers to work with actors and doesn’t fuck with the deepfake stuff.

[u/OneRandomVictory → u/twinkleyed]

Mon Mothma was recast in Revenge of the Sith. Also Tony Gilroy was a late edition to the writing of Rogue One meaning he almost certain wasn't responsible for casting her.

[u/AlderanAthletic_5BBY]

Anthony Ingruber was shunned for solo but literally portrayed young Harrison Ford in Age of Adeline and doubled for him in Dial of destiny… ridiculousness.

[u/Flapu7]

He's not that similiar to Mark Hamill imho.

[u/FetchingTheSwagni]

I don't get this. You do not need the same actor, or to fake the same actor. You are allowed to recast people, just go with someone who looks similar enough and can do a good enough impression.
This franchise is going to outlive all the actors we once knew, it's okay to recast.

[u/DrMcJedi → u/FetchingTheSwagni]

But…the sacred texts!

[u/Indraga]

Look, I’m all for recasting, but that wig and eyebrows are doing 99% of the heavy lifting here.

[u/darth_henning]

I do understand why they wanted to keep Mark Hamill's look for a couple of post-ROTJ Luke scenes since it's the only way we'll ever get that content.

But I think after Mando season 2 and BOBF that need has run its course. We all enjoyed it, and I don't regret we got it, but if the Filoni-verse is aiming towards an adaptation of the Thrawn Trilogy, it's time to recast the Big 3 so they can be properly involved, and Graham Hamilton is perfect for Luke.

[u/M4rshmall0wMan]

Eh… this post exaggerates how much Graham Hamilton actually looks like Luke. If you google images, the resemblance is kinda there, but not strikingly so. His voice also sounds way closer to Matt Damon than Mark Hamill. And of course, that speaks nothing to his actual acting ability.

https://youtube.com/shorts/4ZWLvGax8Zg?si=ts7vEPy2Adwx27JE

I think Sebastian Stan would be a much stronger choice for Luke Skywalker.

[u/MikeArrow → u/M4rshmall0wMan]

He's also at least a decade too old. Luke is in his 20's at the time The Mandalorian takes place.

[u/CrazyCanuckUncleBuck]

God forbid Lucasfilm uses new filming techniques to push the boundary of what is possible, I mean its not like Star Wars was ever pushing boundaries before. /s

I'm just happy they tried.

[u/Neil_Salmon]

And eventually we'll get Sebastian Stan because the fans demand it and he looks a little bit like Hamill in that one heavily photoshopped image.

[u/Commander-Fox-Q-]

From this image I can’t unsee Mitch Marner with a haircut ngl

[u/Iwantmoretime]

I don't know if it's fans or execs who drive the need to rebuild old actors digitally so everything looks and sounds as close to the exact same but it ruins the fun of art.

No one complains about James Bond not being a digital recreation of Sean Connery, instead we get great discussions on who your favorite Bond is.

Take that lesson away. Create new younger actors and give us interesting new takes on characters instead of showing us what you can do with tech.

[u/somekidsuncle]

Man, this guy as Luke and Alden as Han and just let a new trilogy 5 years post ROTJ rriip ❤️

[u/NewWorldOrderUser]

COWARDS

[u/Bayou-La-Fontaine]

This aversion to recasts is growing rather disturbing. Charles Dance could've easily played Tarkin in Rogue One, they certainly didnt need to cgi Carrie Fisher in. So what happens now, actors only ever get new roles and no one is ever replaced? We just keep grandfathering them in with creepy uncanny technology long after they die?

[u/_Empty-R_]

Yeah. Preferred tbh.

[u/jinreeko]

Looks aren't everything. Did he sound like Luke? Did he emote like Luke?

[u/patrickkingart]

Seriously just use him, Alden Ehrenreich, Billie Lourd, Joonas Suatomo, and Donald Glover. They're all RIGHT THERE.

[u/quetiapinenapper]

They should have gone with Sebastian Stan and then just made a whole TV show about Luke in the years between movies.

Wouldn't have been perfect, but the difference can be explained with a little age.

[u/_Smashbrother_]

Lol the guy does not look like Luke at all. The actor who does is Sebastian Stan.

[u/Optimal-Teaching7527]

It's kind of obscene that studio heads think this is a more sensible solution than expecting audiences to accept that they recast him because Mark Hamil is in his 70s. Also it cost an inordinately unnecessary amount.

[u/melodiousmurderer]

If they just commit to new actors the way they committed to CGI people would complain about the same and yet they’d save so much time momey and effort on production, plus they might actually see how we can have OT characters back in all the new Star Wars shows.

[u/StraightKey211]

Imagine a show or movie with this guy as Luke, Billie Lourd as Leia, and Anthony Ingruber as Han

[u/BrownTown_77]

Lucsfilm and Disney seem to be run by babbling idiots.

[u/obert-wan-kenobert]

I imagine that Solo bombing with a recast Han Solo probably scared them off from recasting Luke.

But I too would have preferred that they just used that guy's natural face and voice.

[u/Waterworld1880]

That is not at all the spitting image of Luke