The Star Wars franchise has come a long way since 1977. From day one the movie was a massive hit, but it's hard to believe anybody saw the writing on the wall that it would become as big as it has. Least of all, Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford.
Recently, an early screen test from the movie that would come to be known as Star Wars: A New Hope has been making its way around Twitter. The clip shows a very young Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford together. Hamill recently shared it himself, revealing some details that might not be known to every fan. The two actors had never met each other before sitting down to do their screen test, and neither had any clue what the movie they were auditioning for was really all about. Check out the comments and the clip below.
Fans of Star Wars will easily recognize the scene, even though it doesn't technically appear in the movie. It's the moment where the heroes on board the Millennium Falcon realize that the planet they've been traveling to has been destroyed. Although, the planet has a different name than it does in the final film, and a lot of different dialogue. It's actually just a conversation between Han and Luke, nobody is there reading any lines from Obi-Wan Kenobi.
The highlight of the dialogue is another moment that doesn't make the final movie, the point where Han Solo realizes that his passengers were counting on the Rebellion paying Han when they got to the planet, and so without the planet, they can't pay him the money they owe.
It's certainly clear that, even though these two actors don't know each other, they work well together. Knowing what comes later, we can see the Han and Luke that we know in these rough images.
And of course, from these two, joined by Carrie Fisher, a franchise was launched. The original Star Wars would be a massive hit from day one, and it would spawn a pair of sequels and an entire universe after that.
It seems unlikely either of the pair in the screen test had any idea what they were in for. If only because Mark Hamill says here that George Lucas never really told them what they were doing. The actors never saw the entire script during the audition process, they'd only seen this one scene. Lucas apparently brushed off questions about what the movie was actually about.
It certainly shows some confidence on the part of the actors to agree to do the movie even though they had little idea what they were getting involved in.
And now we strand on the eve of the end of it, or at least part of the end. The Skywalker Saga will conclude with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Of course, we know that Star Wars as a franchise will live on, probably forever.
