Mark Hamill Admits It Was Emotional Reuniting With His ‘Star Wars: Return Of The Jedi’ Lightsaber

It’s a huge understatement to say that Star Wars fans have a strong emotional resonance with the franchise. The response to Carrie Fisher’s death at the end of December, as well as the amount of times that people have flocked to cinemas to see The Force Awakens and Rogue One in recent years, and watch and showcase their fandom for the other films from the series proves just that.

This connection isn’t just between fans and the franchise, though, it also extends to those that have starred in Star Wars’ A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, Return Of The Jedi, The Phantom Menace, Attack Of The Clones, Revenge Of The Sith, The Force Awakens, and Rogue One.

So when Mark Hamill, who portrays Luke Skywalker in the franchise, was reunited with his lightsaber from Star Wars – Episode VI: The Return Of The Jedi during an appearance on his new show Pop Culture Quest, it was always going to be emotional.

The actor got to pick up and hold onto the lightsaber for the first time in over 30 years, and he admitted to Cinema Blend that doing so instantly brought back a flood of memories.

“I didn’t know that was going to happen. People sometimes assume that we get to keep our props which, of course, we don’t. I didn’t know that they were going to have that on set. That’s the fun thing about a show like this; it’s unpredictable, and you can never be sure exactly what’s going to happen. And it has some emotional resonance for me, because I’m not overly sentimental, but it really brings back memories.”

Mark Hamill admitted that holding onto the legendary movie prop didn’t just bring back personal memories of filming sequences, but of working alongside the cast and crew that strove to make Return Of The Jedi such a success. Mark Hamill continued.

“When I think of those movies, I mostly think of the cast and the crew, you know. The guy who was my dresser, or the prop guy, or even the tea lady. The studio stuff was done in England; of course we went on location to various countries, but I see these photographs and these memories of the people that most people don’t know, and they were the family that you lived with when you were making these films. Some of them I’ve worked with again, and some I haven’t seen since we did the original films, but it’s a sense memory thing. You hold something like that in your hands and you think, ‘Oh gosh, I remember when John Mollo was here.’ Like I say, it brings back some really great memories.”

Mark Hamill’s Pop Culture Quest is aired on the Comic-Con HQ streaming website, and it revolves around the actor looking for and interacting with various movie props. Mark Hamill once again held onto his Return Of The Jedi lightsaber in the ninth episode of Pop Culture Quest, and the final episode of the first season will air on Comic-Con HQ on January 24.

But while Mark Hamill’s Pop Culture Quest has built up its own based of devoted fans and viewers, it’s safe to say that the actor’s most anticipated project in 2017 is Star Wars: Episode 8. Especially since Mark Hamill only made a fleeting performance in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, popping up right at the end of the blockbuster in 2015.

Mark Hamill’s Luke Skywalker is set to feature much more prominently in Star Wars: Episode 8 when it’s released on December 15, while we can also expect to see him causing quite a bit of havoc with the lightsaber, which was handed to him at the end of The Force Awakens by Daisy Ridley’s Rey.

[Image by Lucasfilm]