Mark Hamill recently posted on Twitter about keeping his surprise cameo as the iconic Jedi Luke Skywalker in The Mandalorian season two finale a secret.
The fact that we were able to keep my involvement a secret for over a year with no leaks is nothing less than a miracle. A real triumph for spoiler-haters everywhere!#LooseLipsSinkStarships #STFU pic.twitter.com/TOBqlXYyHN
— Mark Hamill (@HamillHimself) December 19, 2020
According to creator Jon Favreau, they accomplished this through a combination strategically feeding the internet other big reveals to distract from the big bombshell and avoiding spoiler-filled merch. Considering we’re talking about Disney and Star Wars, two entertainment industry juggernauts basically built on merchandise, this is no mean feat.
“We started off the whole series with the Baby Yoda reveal — with the Grogu reveal — that was a secret that everybody was really blown away by. Part of that is not telling too many people, not having merchandise that’s being tooled up and announced and everything. And then the very last episode having Mark Hamill actually on set filming and us using whatever technology we had available to de-age him and try to make him look as much like he did in the old films.”
(via Deseret News)
It’s true that these days if you’re eagerly anticipating a show or season finale, it’s often utterly impossible to browse the internet without having it spoiled for you (admittedly due to articles such as this one, but this is definitely worth talking about, spoilers or not). Hamill’s face having been inexorably linked to Star Wars for nearly half a century, if word had got out the news of the cameo would have broken the internet and ruined the biggest thrill Star Wars fans have arguably experienced since the teaser for The Force Awakens dropped.
