Mark Hamill Cracks Last Jedi Joke While Praising Marvel

Star Wars star Mark Hamill couldn't help getting off a joke about The Last Jedi while congratulating Marvel for breaking every box office record this weekend with Avengers: Infinity War. The box office results are in and Avengers: Infinity War is the biggest movie ever, at least when it comes to opening weekend. After just three days in release, Infinity War eclipsed The Force Awakens for the biggest domestic opening ever, while also surpassing Fate of the Furious for the biggest worldwide opening.

Infinity War's utter domination at the box office has not gone unnoticed by folks in the entertainment industry. Lucasfilm chief Kathleen Kennedy yesterday offered her shout out to the Marvel team for knocking her own Force Awakens out of the top spot among opening weekend grossers (though it still remains to be seen if IW will ultimately top TFW to become all-time highest grossing film in U.S. history). Deadpool actor Ryan Reynolds too sent over his congrats to his fellow Marvelers, even though Deadpool himself still can't convince Tony Stark to hire him.

And now Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hamill, has chimed in with his own congratulatory message to Marvel and Infinity War. And with it, he made another little joke about The Last Jedi, playing off of an image Kathleen Kennedy tweeted of Rey symbolically passing the box office torch by handing over her lightsaber to Iron Man. See Hamill's tweet below:

Well done, @MarvelStudios and @Avengers: #InfinityWar.
(FYI #IronMan: Wait until after she leaves if you're going to toss that away. Trust me on this one.) From Mark and everyone at the Hamill house! https://t.co/U18od1q8TR— Mark Hamill (@HamillHimself) May 1, 2018

Hamill's joke of course refers to the moment early in The Last Jedi when Rey, completing the motion she began at the very end of The Force Awakens, hands Luke Skywalker his old lightsaber. As fans will remember, Luke reacted to by immediately tossing the lightsaber back over his shoulder. With that one gesture, Luke conveyed to Rey that he had left his past behind and had no interest in taking on another apprentice (his whole Ben Solo experience didn't go so well). But of course stubborn Rey only stuck around trying to convince Luke to become her Yoda.

As everyone surely recalls, Hamill admitted that he had issues with Rian Johnson's conception of Luke Skywalker, who in The Last Jedi has become a cranky old recluse living out his days on a secluded island, subsisting on milk and fish. But Hamill also has indicated he's made his peace with the direction the character was taken. However, each time Hamill makes another joke about The Last Jedi, many will read it as proof the actor still harbors a certain amount of resentment over the way Johnson wrote Skywalker. And if fan reaction to The Last Jedi proves anything, many besides Hamill objected to the direction Johnson took Skywalker.

Though Hamill couldn't resist making one more The Last Jedi joke, his message also shows his graciousness in shouting out the Marvel team for their accomplishment. Of course, Hamill could have a good reason for wanting to stay in the good graces of the Marvel folks. In the past, the actor has expressed interest in making an appearance in a Guardians of the Galaxy film. And James Gunn, for his part, seems down with the idea too. With Hamill's Star Wars obligations now fulfilled, a leap over to the MCU seems ever more possible.