Sebastian Stan on Playing Luke Skywalker After Star Wars Icon Mark Hamill: “You Don’t Want to F-ck Up That Character”

From the Marvel Cinematic Universe to a galaxy far, far away? Sebastian Stan says he hasn’t had talks about succeeding Star Wars icon Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker, but the Falcon and the Winter Soldier star isn’t ruling out playing the iconic character that you “don’t want to [mess] up.” When Hamill reacted to Stan’s uncanny resemblance to a young Luke during a joint 2017 appearance on Good Morning America, where the Star Wars veteran was asked about another actor playing the role in live-action, Hamill quipped Stan is “way too handsome” to play the farmboy-turned-Jedi before saying the Marvel star “doesn’t need” his approval to be Disney and Lucasfilm’s new Luke Skywalker.

“I always certainly hear about [Luke Skywalker rumors] and I’m always slightly confused because I’m like if there are these conversations happening, why isn’t anybody calling me about it and having a conversation with me about it?” Stan told MTV Asia. “Like anybody, I grew up on Star Wars, and for me, Empire Strikes Back was like one of my favorite movies. And Mark Hamill is one of the most iconic personalities and Luke Skywalker’s an iconic character, so obviously, it doesn’t sound like it’s my choice. It doesn’t feel like it’s up to me. Whatever that needs to be will sort itself out, and if it includes me in any way, hey — who knows.”

Asked if he would like to play Luke Skywalker, Stan said he’s “grateful” people see him in the role and that he’s “always wondered what happens to Luke when it’s the end of Return of the Jedi.“

“Like where does he go, what happens to him? I think those questions would be really interesting,” Stan said. “And of course, it’s another one of those things where you’re like, ‘Well, you don’t want to f-ck up that character. You want to get that one right.’ But anyway, we’ll see.”

When Stan returned to GMA in March to promote Falcon and Winter Soldier, Stan said he would only believe the Luke Skywalker rumors “if Mark Hamill calls me personally to tell me that he feels inclined to share this role with me.” On Twitter, Hamill reminded hopefuls that he doesn’t “have any say in casting decisions at Lucasfilm.”

After portraying an aged Luke in all three chapters of the studio’s Star Wars sequel trilogy, a de-aged Hamill and body double Max Lloyd-Jones played a late-20s Luke when the character made a cameo appearance in the Season 2 finale of The Mandalorian. The live-action Star Wars series is currently set five years after 1983’s Return of the Jedi.

“[Pictures online] morphed us together and I thought, ‘Oh, that is kind of spooky.’ But he’s a wonderful actor,” Hamill said of Stan during his 2017 visit to Good Morning America. “People say, ‘Will you support him to be the young Luke Skywalker when they make those movies?’ I thought, ‘He doesn’t need me. He’s an accomplished enough actor to get it on his own, and I shouldn’t put my thumb on the scale because it’s not my choice.’ It’s Disney and Lucasfilm’s [choice]. I don’t want to cut short any other potential Lukes.”

Hamill added, “But I’d love to work with him. Heck, I’d play his father any day.”