Mark Hamill Appreciates The Secrecy of Star Wars

Star Wars Celebration Europe kicked off with a spotlight panel on Mark Hamill. The actor, who has starred in four films now as Luke Skywalker, knew what everyone would want to ask him about, and covered it before his hour-long Q&A began quite succinctly.

"I see all your expectant faces saying Mark, give us a detail about Episode VIII. I know you'll love the irony that I'm contractually forbidden from doing that," he said to a mix of laughter and disappointed sighs.

That prompted the question of how Hamill felt about the secrecy of the Star Wars franchise, and he has mixed feelings. While the actor admitted it can get "annoying" in some aspects, he appreciates the reasoning behind it.

"It can get really annoying and intrusive," Hamill said of the secrecy. "The call sheets have numbers, no names on them. You look at the sheets to see who you're working with, 'oh, I love 22's work. She's twice as good as 11.'"

However, he understands, and even thinks that all the extra work to make the story a surprise is a good thing.

"They're not doing it to annoy you, they just want the surprise to be in the movie theaters, not the internet. You don't want to know what you're getting for your birthday! So I understand why they're doing it, but it can get really out of control, with pages being shredded every day. They'd let me have one scene, and I'd keep it on my person," the actor said. That was an exception to the rule: most scripts were kept only on iPads, and were only able to be viewed on set.

In the end, it's worth it as he loved the "really great surprise" of Luke's eventual reveal in the final scene of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. He did laugh, however, that he had to go "to training, lose all this weight," and then found out, "You're going to turn and remove your hood."

Hamill is currently wrapping Star Wars: Episode VIII for a December 15, 2017 release.