‘The Mandalorian’ didn’t plan to have Luke Skywalker and his creepy CGI face

The appearance of Luke Skywalker in season two of The Mandalorian was a surprise to all – and also completely unplanned.

Even if you haven’t watched season two of The Mandalorian, you probably already know that a very eerie-looking CGI Luke Skywalker makes an appearance in the season finale. It was sort of hard to avoid given all the noise made by the internet when the episode was first released.

For those who need catching up on what Luke did in The Mandalorian season two finale, he basically rocked up, wreaked havoc on a bunch of super tough droids that even Mando had trouble with, and then walked out with Baby Yoda (I still refuse to call him Grogu) as a new apprentice but not before the cute little…whatever he is and Mando had an emotional farewell.

All of season two and the finale pieced together very nicely without too many clunky bits, unlike the Sequel Trilogy for example. Well, maybe except for Jeans Guy, but I still maintain his appearance was a positive rather than a negative.

So it was all the more surprising to hear the Luke Skywalker wasn’t originally part of the plan when Mandalorian creator and showrunner Jon Favreau was crafting season two.

Chatting to the Writers Guild Of America recently about working on Mandolorian, Favreau revealed that he didn’t plan for a digitally-deaged Mark Hamill to return as Luke.

The idea was to have some Jedi to respond to Baby Yoda’s call and having that Jedi be Luke came about naturally as Favreau wrote out season two of the show.

“No. The story unfolded as I wrote it,” says Favreau. “The Mandalorian inherits a great deal from existing Star Wars stories, and when I write, that context is always a consideration.”

“It became clear that, within the established continuity, certain things were likely to transpire.”

Favreau also said that he and long-time important Star Wars guy Dave Filoni are always in “constant” discussion about how The Mandalorian could impact and be impacted by the Star Wars canon, which is a good sign that the TV universe is in good hands.

Unlike the movies.

Check out Luke Skywalker in the season two finale of The Mandalorian:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n118WCwEANY

Get unlimited access to the coverage that shapes our culture.

Subscribe to Rolling Stone magazine

Subscribe to Rolling Stone magazine