mark hamill

Star Wars Celebration is set to kick off in just a few days, and with the 40th anniversary of the iconic franchise on the horizon, fans are expecting this year’s festivities to be extra special — but it looks like we won’t have to wait until later this week for major news from a galaxy far, far away. Good Morning America is teasing a big Star Wars announcement for tomorrow’s episode, but what could it possibly be? The first teaser for The Last Jedi? A revelation about one of your favorite characters?

Mark Hamill, like many stars who enjoy sharing glimpses of the days before they finally made it big, enjoys posting the occasional photo or two from the sets of Star Wars. Just a few days ago, he shared what might very well be the first ever photo taken of Luke Skywalker in costume out in the middle of the Tunisian desert. Today, another early photo of himself as the young Jedi was unearthed, and Hamill pointed out that Lucasfilm was not keen on letting the public see it for years.

For franchise movie fans, nothing grates on the nerves quite like the lull between the day production wraps on a new movie and the day the first teaser drops. Production has been finished on Star Wars: The Last Jedi for a few months now, and since we’re not quite sure when Disney will be releasing the first trailer for the film, we’re latching onto any piece of information we can get about the new film or any new Star Wars content, period. In short, we’re in the business of reading too much into Mark Hamill’s Twitter account.

The official title of the next chapter in the Star Wars saga was announced this morning, and there’s already been a little speculation among fans about who The Last Jedi might be — is it Luke Skywalker (the obvious choice) or Rey (the second-most obvious choice)? As it turns out, we already know, and by “we,” we mean you do, too…unless you didn’t see The Force Awakens. But observant fans will tell you that there may be a third option — one that’s less apparent, but a little more intriguing.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams said recently that it “seems insanely narrow-minded to say that there wouldn’t be a homosexual character in [the Star Wars] world.” But, what if there was already a gay character in the Star Wars universe and we just didn’t know it? And what if it was the biggest Star Wars character in a galaxy far, far away?

Lucasfilm released an announcement video a couple of weeks ago to kick off production on Star Wars: Episode VIII, showing just a tiny glimpse of footage that made it look as if Rian Johnson was picking up where J.J. Abrams left off. If you had any doubts that Episode VIII would begin where The Force Awakens ends, Daisy Ridley has confirmed that this is definitely the case — and that Luke Skywalker will have much more to do this time around.

The original Star Wars was driven by nostalgia for pulp magazines, Saturday-morning serials, and a simpler era with clear-cut heroes and villains. The new Star Wars is driven by nostalgia for the original Star Wars, and a simpler era when that title evoked words like “adventure” and “excitement,” and not words like “the taxation of trade routes,” and “Jar Jar Binks.” The characters in Star Wars: The Force Awakens are all searching for something of great importance to the galaxy far, far away. I won’t reveal what this MacGuffin is, but I will tell you what it represents: that old Star Wars magic. Can director J.J. Abrams and the rest of the saga’s new creators find it?

Disney and Lucasfilm are trying very hard to preserve the secrets of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. There are reports that the film won’t screen for critics until the day before it opens in theaters. And there are rumors that not only will there be no more trailers, but that the TV spots that run won’t use any new footage and everything you’ve seen so far, is all you’re going to get. But, even as they try to keep a carbonite fist on spoilers, J.J. Abrams has to leave his house. As much as Disney would like, they can’t keep him chained up in a Rancor pit until December 17. The dude has to go out in public. And that he did just the other day, and as people shouted at him “LUKE!!! WHERE’S LUKE!!!!” he was obliged to answer.

Just when you thought we might be done with Star Wars news today — nope! The glorious internet has provided us with our first legitimate look at Mark Hamill’s Luke Skywalker in The Force Awakens, and he looks like he’s aged quite nicely into a wizened Jedi.

If you’re one of those people who can’t get enough ‘Star Wars: Episode 7’ spoilers, first, might we recommend our weekly Wookieepedia ‘Star Wars’ round up? With that shameless plug out of the way, let us now offer you ‘Star Wars’ spoiler addicts some advice from Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hamill. CHILL OUT.

Before he was a CGI creation, Jedi master Yoda was a puppet. Before green screens became the norm, the Dagobah set for ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ was built elevated off the ground to accommodate Yoda’s puppeteers. And before he brought Yoda to life, puppeteer and voice actor Frank Oz was best known as the man behind Miss Piggy. In a weird way, that makes the most wizened character in the ‘Star Wars’ universe a distant relative of the extended Muppet family.

It's hard to imagine Luke Skywalker being played by anyone but Mark Hamill in the original 'Star Wars' trilogy, but it very well could have happened. And according to 'Nightmare on Elm Street' icon Robert Englund, better known to audiences as Freddy Krueger, it might not have happened at all had he not once told a teenage boy about the part after coming home from a failed 'Star Wars' audition himself.