Showrunner Jon Favreau reveals how The Mandalorian's crew managed to keep the Luke Skywalker cameo a secret, despite all the other casting leaks. The season 2 finale of the show, released last Friday, included a climactic final battle where Moff Gideon's Dark troopers are taken out by a cloaked figure who arrives on an X-Wing. Using a green lightsaber, the figure is revealed to be Luke Skywalker, played by Mark Hamill with de-aging CGI applied to his face. The cameo was a secret, managing to surprise audiences.
Hamill's appearance in The Mandalorian was perhaps the only piece of new casting for the show which wasn't leaked. Rosario Dawson's role as Ahsoka Tano, Temeura Morrison's return as Boba Fett, and even Katee Sackhoff's live-action debut as Bo-Katan were all known about well before season 2 even started to air. So it was a great piece of work keeping the appearance of the most iconic Star Wars character a secret. However, Favreau and his team managed to pull it off, though the director and showrunner admits he was worried it would somehow come out right up until the final aired.
Speaking on GMA this morning, Favreau revealed he was convinced the surprise cameo would look, but praised the massive crew involved, from the visual effects teams to the studio's staff, for keeping things under wraps. Favreau says part of the cameo strategy was not to produce any merchandise or tell too many people about it. He adds, though, that it was "tricky" given the scrutiny that accompanies any Star Wars project. You can read his full comments below:
It was very tricky because it’s very hard to keep a secret nowadays especially with Star Wars because people are so curious about it and there are so many people involved with the process with visual effects finishing, making it, filming it, at the studios, everything. And every leak, every piece of casting leaked and we were so scared right up until it aired that our surprise cameo was gonna leak too. But 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. And part of that is not telling too many people, not having merchandise that’s being tooled up and announced; all that kind of thing. And then to have the very last episode to have 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.
There's no doubt it must have taken a monumental effort to keep Hamill's cameo a secret. Luke Skywalker is arguably the most recognizable fictional character globally, and to have kept his cameo hidden from the world without anyone leaking it is admirable. Of course, Hamill is used to keeping secrets, having done so on several occasions while playing Skywalker. In the sequels, he had to keep his small role in The Force Awakens and his death in The Last Jedi a secret too, so it's more impressive the massive crew involved with The Mandalorian didn't leak anything.
The whole situation proves that even in the age of social media and camera phones, some things can still be kept a secret. Disney+ and the Lucasfilm team should pat themselves on the back for this one, as the cameo truly was a shock to audiences and a great way to end The Mandalorian season 2. Will they be able to pull off something similar for season 3? The bar has been set pretty high, but with Star Wars, anything is possible.
Source: GMA