The Mandalorian Season 2 has not been shy about bringing in elements and characters from around the Star Wars galaxy. These have largely been lesser-known characters (at least, compared with the likes of Darth Vader and Han Solo), like Rosario Dawson’s Ahsoka Tano, who’s familiar to those who’ve watched some of the Star Wars animated shows, and Katee Sackhoff’s character Bo-Katan. Boba Fett was the exception, although Mando’s version of that iconic character is grizzled and very different from the versions we’ve met before.
In the Season 2 finale, however, The Mandalorian finally went all-in and inserted the mother of all Star Wars cameos. If you haven’t seen the episode yet, go watch it before scrolling any further down the page, because we’re about to spoil it–obviously.
In The Mandalorian’s Season 2 finale, after the climactic battle, Mando and his crew encountered none other than Luke Skywalker (accompanied by R2-D2, of course), who appeared to take Baby Yoda–sorry, Grogu–away for training. And, of course, Luke appeared basically as he was originally portrayed by Mark Hamill–Mark Hamill of 40+ years ago, thanks to the tenuous magic of extremely uncanny CGI.
Naturally, the Mark Hamill of today, who played Luke Skywalker again in the newest trilogy of Star Wars films, can’t really pass as his younger self (understandably). So just as they did with Grand Moff Tarkin and Princess Leia in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Disney used a freaky-looking CGI puppet of young Luke.
The timeline makes sense; The Mandalorian is set following the events of the original trilogy, but before the events of the newest trilogy. Luke would have been in the prime of his Jedi mastery. We never considered the character would have made a cameo on this show, but it’s 2020, so we probably should have seen something like this coming.
According to the credits for the episode, Max Lloyd Jones was a body double for the Jedi, leading us to believe he stood in while Hamill’s face was added on top. So chances are the iconic actor wasn’t on set for the scene. Luke gets a few lines in, but it’s hard to tell whether it’s Hamill’s voice or just an impersonator. Either way, there’s no denying that it’s extremely weird.
Of course, there were more surprises in this episode, and we’ll be covering them shortly. Stay tuned.
