Mark Hamill thanked The Mandalorian director Peyton Reed, who helmed the season two finale of the show. The finale, titled "Chapter 16: The Rescue," saw Mando and his allies, including Bo-Katan and Cara Dune, go after Grogu on Moff Gideon's ship. After Mando subdues Moff Gideon, steals back the Darksaber, and has Grogu back in his arms, the group is attacked by a battalion of dark troopers, ruthless machines that are extremely difficult to kill.
A mysterious figure, flying an all familiar fighter jet, boards the ship. The hooded Jedi unleashes a green lightsaber and slaughters the dark troopers that were about to kill Mando and his friends. The figure ends up being none other than Luke Skywalker himself, a reveal that lit up the fan base. Using de-aging technology, the show brought back a young Luke, who then whisked Grogu away to begin his formal training as a Jedi.
Hamill has already publicly thanked The Mandalorian creators for his character's return, but a new Twitter exchange between him and Reed sees Hamill even more thankful. In reply to a tweet from Reed where the director reveals he idolized Luke as a child, Hamill thanked the director for allowing him to participate in his character's return. Hamill goes on to say that Reed's direction and generosity were essential to his experience and that bringing back his character to a time when he was a beacon of light made the experience all the more worth it.
Like Reed and Hamill, the return of a young Luke Skywalker was an exciting moment for most of the Star Wars fandom. After a rocky few years that saw fan relations with Lucasfilm go south, many see The Mandalorian as a step towards repairing the Disney-fied mistakes that were made in the sequel trilogy. Those mistakes, compounded with the mixed reception of the spin-offs, has made Star Wars fans wary in recent years. Worried that Disney is ruining the franchise, many fans feel that The Mandalorian was becoming the antidote to years of frustration.
It seems Hamill is echoing those sentiments or at least acknowledging them. Luke Skywalker's portrayal in Star Wars: The Last Jedi was controversial to say the least. Many saw the behavior of Luke Skywalker in the Rian Johnson helmed film as antithetical to everything the character stood for. Many also went on to decry the film as a major misstep, and it will likely go down as one of the most divisive Star Wars films of all time, especially after Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker failed to rectify most of the damage. Luckily, The Mandalorian seems to be doing some of that work, and while Luke Skywalker's future in that series is uncertain, his brief return at the end has fans and Hamill thankful for one last chance at redemption.
Source: Mark Hamill
