Mark Hamill is easily one of the most recognizable actors of all time, and he has more than a few notable film and TV credits to his name. Obviously, Hamill is revered for his role as Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars movies, and he’s a prolific voice actor with countless credits under his belt. The 73-year-old actor continues to find success in the entertainment industry today but, as it turns out, he nearly retired from acting following The Rise of Skywalker. That changed, however, and fans have Mike Flanagan to thank.
CinemaBlend was fortunate enough to be present at the San Diego Comic-Con panel for the upcoming horror film The Long Walk, which is set to hit the 2025 movie schedule later this year. During the panel, Mark Hamill spoke to fans – alongside the rest of the cast and crew – about what they could expect from the dystopian flick. It was during the discussion that he also talked about why he initially decided to step away from live-action acting once the Star Wars sequel trilogy came to a close in 2019:
I didn’t expect to be this busy at this stage in my career. I thought this stage of my career I'd be spending more time with a metal detector wandering around the beach. You know, playing with the dogs in the backyard. I said to my agents, I said, ‘You know what? I'm not motivated anymore.’ This is 2019. I said, ‘You know, I think I'm going to retire and just do voice-over [work].’ The only people who objected were my agent and my wife — it's good to have me out of the house.
Honestly, it would’ve been somewhat poetic for Mark Hamill to bid farewell to acting after saying goodbye to Luke Skywalker. After all, it was Hamill’s turn as the farm boy-turned-rebel-turned-jedi that made him into a household name. Plus, as the DCAU alum stated, he would’ve continued to do some voice-over gigs. Nevertheless, it wouldn’t have been a shame not to have seen Hamill do any more on-camera work. Hamill’s career has changed, though, when he was cast in Mike Flanagan’s The Fall of the House of Usher:
I have to say, ‘Thank you to Mike Flanagan.’ That would have been a routine character for a voice over, but to play an amoral sociopathic lawyer, just pure evil, never on camera. So I really have to thank Mike Flanagan, because he got outside the box.
As part of that small-screen take on Edgar Allen Poe’s famous short story (which is streamable with a Netflix subscription), Mark Hamill plays the role of family fixer and lawyer Arthur Gordon Pym, and he plays it to perfection. That isn’t the only time that Hamill would participate in a Flanagan-helmed production either. Later, Hamill and Flanagan teamed up again for the latter’s film adaptation of Stephen King’s The Life of Chuck, for which Hamill also received praise.
The Joker voice actor has been more than a little busy over the past several years, as he’s taken on both live-action roles and voice-over work. Of course, he’s even since reprised Luke Skywalker in a way, as his likeness and voice were used to recreate a younger version of the character on The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett. Hamill is now playing the Major in The Long Walk, which is a Stephen King adaptation directed by Francis Lawrence. The character serves as an antagonist and, by all accounts, he’s quite brutal.
Not only do I love that Mark Hamill is still doing on-camera work, but I also appreciate the gratitude he has for Mike Flanagan. This seems like a situation in which “game recognizes game,” and I love seeing that. I’ll also have to see Hamill in The Long Walk, which opens in theaters on September 12. Those who’d like to catch up on Hamill’s Star Wars work in the meantime can stream the films and shows on Disney+.
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