Mark Hamill, AKA Star Wars’ Luke Skywalker, predicted the plot and timing of latest instalment The Force Awakens way back in 1983 – on a British morning TV show – it has been revealed.
Hamill appeared on ITV breakfast show TV-am more than three decades ago in the year the final instalment of the original trilogy, Return of the Jedi, appeared in cinemas. The footage was first uploaded to YouTube in 2012 but has re-emerged ahead of the release of the debut trailer for The Force Awakens on iTunes on 28 November.
In the interview, Hamill suggests with Jedi-like prescience that Skywalker will return to the big screen about a decade into the 21st century. “He [George Lucas] said once would I consider playing an Obi-Wan [Kenobi] type character handing Excalibur down to the next generation,” Hamill explained. “At the time I said, ‘When would that be?’ and he said, ‘Oh, around 2011.’”
Lucas sold all rights to Star Wars to Disney in October 2012 for $4.05bn, but Disney’s proposals for a new trilogy of films are said to be loosely based on his ideas.
The Force Awakens was originally expected to focus on a new generation of space warriors, but the screenplay was retooled to give greater weight to Hamill’s Skywalker, Carrie Fisher’s Princess Leia and Harrison Ford’s Han Solo after JJ Abrams signed on to direct. The cast also includes Oscar Isaac, Adam Driver, Max von Sydow, John Boyega and Andy Serkis, as well as British newcomers Daisy Ridley and Pip Andersen.
The new movie is due for release in December 2015.
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