Who Played [SPOILER] in ‘The Mandalorian’?

It was pretty fair to bet that a Jedi was going to show up on the final episode of The Mandalorian Season 2. Back in “Chapter 14: The Tragedy,” Grogu communed with a seeing stone on the planet Tython, and any Jedi in range would have come looking for the little tyke. But did you see that Jedi showing up in the finale? MASSIVE SPOILERS PAST THIS POINT, but yeah… Luke Skywalker appeared. But given some digital chicanery, you might be wondering: who played Luke Skywalker on The Mandalorian?

A little bit of Mando recap, first, in case you missed the episode (and if so, why are you reading this article? shame on you!). After getting trapped on the bridge of Moff Gideon’s (Giancarlo Esposito) Imperial Light Cruiser, Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and company were held down by a platoon of robotic, unstoppable Dark Troopers. Earlier in the episode, one Trooper had nearly knocked Mando down for the count; so with dozens of them, it was clearly the end of the line.

…That is, until a very familiar X-Wing pulled up to the ship. Out stepped a hooded Jedi, dressed in black. As the blurry footage slowly revealed, this Jedi was not Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson), who we met a few episodes back; this was someone different. Someone with an iconic green lightsaber. Someone with one hand.

And after beating the Dark Troopers, that figure was revealed to be none other than Luke Skywalker, a.k.a. the farm boy who saved the galaxy. At this point in the timeline, about five-ish years after the end of Return of the Jedi, Luke is just getting around to establishing the Jedi school that Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) will later destroy in a fit of rage before joining the First Order and kicking of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Meaning that if you’re worried whether Grogu is heading off to his certain doom, don’t fret: there’s still about a decade or so until anything bad goes down.

Recap out of the way, let’s go back to our original question… Because you’re not a dumbo, you probably realized that yes, that is Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker on The Mandalorian; but it’s a digital version of him, superimposed on someone else’s face an dbody. The credits list Max Lloyd Jones as “Double for Jedi,” though TV viewers might know him better as Tom from the hit series When Calls The Heart, or Noah on Switched at Birth. Lloyd Jones is no stranger to digital doubling, either: he played Blue Eyes in War for the Planet of the Apes.

So the slightly more complex answer is, as they have before, Lucasfilm used a digitally de-aged version of Mark Hamill and superimposed it on another actor’s body, aka Max Lloyd Jones. The studio has previously used this tech to create a younger version of Carrie Fisher — twice: once at the end of Rogue One; the second time during a flashback in Rise of Skywalker. Peter Cushing’s Grand Moff Tarkin was also digitally created for Rogue One, to, uh, less than savory results.

Despite controversy about the technique, Mark Hamill actually supported the idea back in 2018… Though he expected that it would be used posthumously, not while he is still very much alive. “Well already I told my family ‘Absolutely – thumbs up!'” Hamill told the Radio Times.

In the same interview, Hamill also seemed very open to the idea of Luke being recast, and even suggested Sebastian Stan, or Jacob Tremblay. However, it’s clear that Lucasfilm decided to go the de-aging route, using a combo of Hamill’s voice (he’s in the credits, folks, come on) and Lloyd Jones’s body.

On the other hand, R2-D2? That’s all him, baby.

Stream The Mandalorian on Disney+