Mark Hamill is currently making the rounds promoting his new voice over role for the NBC special “Elf: Buddy’s Musical Christmas,” and during his latest interview promoting the film with Yahoo Movies, Mark got to talk a bit about “The Force Awakens,” including his thoughts on the new generation of “Star Wars” characters, and getting to play with the new droid BB-8! Here is a portion of Mark Hamill’s interview with Yahoo Movies:
Were you surprised that you’re not in the first trailer?
Not really. This is about the new generation of characters; I think that’s the most important thing. It’s the opening act of a whole new approach to the storytelling. So I never thought that the stories would be – first of all, I never thought I’d be involved in it again, period. And then when George [Lucas] said that they wanted to do more, I rightly assumed that it wouldn’t be our story, because we had a beginning, a middle, and an end. This must be our offspring and the current generation, with us there lending the kind of support that Peter Cushing and Alec Guinness did in the original. So no, that didn’t surprise me. And I mean, I’m one of those people where I just think, “Keep me out of it. I’ll ruin it, I’m sure!” [Laughs] I’ll show up and just ruin the whole thing.
Something to the effect of, “Omigod have you seen the Star Wars trailer? With the crazy lightsaber and the droid that looks like a ball?”
[Laughs] I’m sure he loved the new little droid that’s a rolling ball. I’m sure he wants it under the tree this Christmas. They never cease to amaze me with what they’re able to come up with, you know? I said, “How are you ever gonna top R2-D2, the most adorable droid in movie history?” And then they have this new one. I can’t even tell you his name, but you saw it in the trailer. [Editor’s note: the name of the droid has been revealed as BB-8.] And when they were demonstrating how they did this thing, live on set — because it’s not CGI, that’s a live prop — I was just amazed. They let me play around with it. [Laughs] I was running it all around at the creature shop up in Pinewood. I’m telling you, it’s an absolute delight. And not having thought that I’d ever go back there, to go back into that world, is just – I get the chills. It’s just so much fun.
While it’s cool to know the BB-8 droid was a live prop that Mark Hamill got to play with on set, I did find this answer from him interesting. ” I rightly assumed that it wouldn’t be our story. This must be our offspring and the current generation.” While him saying “rightly assumed” and that “This must be our offspring and the current generation” doesn’t fully confirm that some of the new characters will be offspring of Han, Luke or Leia, I do think him saying “rightly assumed” does mean part of what he expected Episode VII to be about all along, will in fact be in the movie. And just maybe that is the offspring of the original trilogy characters being the main focus of the movie. Until we get official confirmation on these new characters, it is something fun to speculate about!
Be sure to check out the full interview with Mark Hamill over at Yahoo Movies.
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