For all the months of advance photos and footage from the highly anticipated “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” Luke Skywalker’s role in the film remains elusive — but don’t expect Mark Hamill to shed any light.
“I have something coming out where there’s an amount of money that if it leaks because of me I don’t get that payment,” the actor told PC Gamer in a video posted on Thursday. “If I keep it a secret until the day it comes out, I get that payment.”
The actor who played Luke Skywalker through the franchise’s first three films (or second three, if you’re a canon tyrant) was coy about the project in question, but there’s little doubt that he’s referring to the seventh installment in the “Star Wars” series.
He went on to liken the magnitude of the secret with which he’s been entrusted to the revelation in “Empire Strikes Back” that Darth Vader is Luke’s father.
“I’m good about keeping secrets,” Hamill said. “I’m proud of the fact that I knew a year and a half before anybody else that he was actually Dad Vader. I didn’t tell (co-star) Harrison (Ford) or my wife.”
While sharing a story long known by “Star Wars” fans, Hamill recounted the secret that “Empire Strikes Back” director Irvin Kershner shared with him: “‘George knows,’ meaning George Lucas, ‘I know, now I’m going to tell you. And if it leaks we’ll know it’s you.’ Because the line originally was, ‘You don’t know the truth: Obi Wan killed your father.’ And [Kershner] said, ‘We’re going to take out that line and put in, “I am your father.”‘”
“I couldn’t believe it. I was so excited,” Hamill reminisced. “It was just a mind-boggling plot twist … Now it’s happening all over again,” presumably referring to an undisclosed plot point in “The Force Awakens.”
Then again, despite the appearance of his name on the movie’s posters, pre-press and other assorted paraphernalia, maybe Hamill sat this chapter out.
“I’m not even authorized to tell you I’m in ‘Episode VII,’” he said.
Watch the video below (11:30 mark).