Q&A's About 'Star Wars': Will Luke Skywalker Have a Cameo in The Mandalorian?

On Quora, member Saif Ramiz asks:

Will Luke Skywalker have a cameo in The Mandalorian?

My reply:

Contrary to rumors or speculation to the contrary, it is not likely that Mark Hamill will make a cameo on The Mandalorian as the galaxy’s sole post-Battle of Endor Jedi Knight, Luke Skywalker.

The Mandalorian is set between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, which would not necessarily preclude an appearance by Hamill as Luke if the story really called for it. But the setting is closer to the immediate post-Endor era (five years after the destruction of the second Death Star) than it is to the Sequel Trilogy), which makes any cameos by Hamill problematic at best.

There’s also the fact that the show has already been shot and is no longer in principal photography; the premiere is less than two months from this writing, and the 10-episode series’ cast list, which includes Carl Weathers (Apollo Creed from Rocky) and Nick Nolte (48 HRS., The Deep, The Prince of Tides) is set in stone, as it were. Mark Hamill’s name is not in the cast list.

Also, Hamill is not just sitting around twittering his thumbs waiting for the release of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. He is, after all, a much-in-demand voice actor, and he is currently busy with such projects as The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, Invincible, and the video game Squadron 42. He also plays the role of Albert Farthington in the upcoming animated TV movie Relatively Super.

So unless Lucasfilm and showrunner Jon Favreau (who has worked on other Star Wars projects, starting with George Lucas and Dave Filoni’s Star Wars: The Clone Wars) have been able to keep a Hamill appearance off-the-record, a cameo on The Mandalorian is, at this point, not even worth speculating about.