{"id":380456,"date":"2026-04-08T00:17:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T00:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/380456\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T00:17:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T00:17:09","slug":"mark-hamill-supports-new-star-wars-boss-after-kathleen-kennedys-exit-and-last-jedi-issues-i-cant-think-of-better-hands-than-dav","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/380456\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Hamill Supports New \u2018Star Wars\u2019 Boss After Kathleen Kennedy\u2019s Exit and \u2018Last Jedi\u2019 Issues: \u2018I Can\u2019t Think of Better Hands\u2019 Than Dave Filoni"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mark Hamill is giving the new leadership at Lucasfilm an enthusiastic endorsement. Speaking to USA Today<\/a>, the Luke Skywalker actor said he \u201ccan\u2019t think of better hands\u201d for \u201cStar Wars\u201d to be in than those of Dave Filoni, who is now Lucasfilm\u2019s co-president and chief creative officer. Filoni is running the \u201cStar Wars\u201d studio alongside Lynwen Brennan after Kathleen Kennedy announced her exit in January.<\/p>\n

Hamill noted that Filoni understands the \u201cStar Wars\u201d franchise \u201cso well\u201d having worked directly with George Lucas on \u201cStar Wars: The Clone Wars.\u201d The actor would later work with Filoni when Luke Skywalker was brought back via de-aging VFX to appear in Disney+ series \u201cThe Mandalorian\u201d and \u201cThe Book of Boba Fett.\u201d The actor called these projects \u201cgreat stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

More from Variety<\/p>\n

\u201cGeorge was a mentor to Dave, so he knows George\u2019s sensibility,\u201d Hamill added.<\/p>\n

Kennedy served as Lucasfilm president for 14 years, joining in summer 2012 just ahead of Disney\u2019s $4.05 billion acquisition of the studio. Under Kennedy, \u201cStar Wars\u201d came roaring back to life with 2015\u2019s \u201cStar Wars: The Force Awakens.\u201d But the franchise then stumbled amid polarizing fan responses to sequel movies \u201cThe Last Jedi\u201d and \u201cThe Rise of Skywalker.\u201d Hamill himself was a critic of \u201cThe Last Jedi,\u201d taking issue with how Luke Skywalker became a miserable, hardened recluse living in self-imposed exile after his protege, Ben Solo, joined the dark side and became Kylo Ren.<\/p>\n

Hamill told\u00a0Comic Book<\/a>\u00a0after \u201cThe Last Jedi\u201d opened in theaters that he \u201cstill hadn\u2019t accepted\u201d\u00a0what happened to Luke and opposed such a dark heel turn for the character, although the actor stressed on the \u201cBullseye with Jesse Thorn\u201d podcast<\/a>\u00a0last summer that director Rian Johnson made \u201ca great movie,\u201d adding: \u201cI\u2019d love to clear this up. \u2026 Rian Johnson is one of the most gifted directors I\u2019ve ever worked with.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that I went public with my dissatisfaction with the motivation for Luke becoming a suicidal hermit might have colored things in a way that, maybe I should have kept that to myself,\u201d Hamill admitted. \u201cBut I kept saying to Rian, \u2018This would just make Luke double down even\u2026\u2019 and he said, \u2018Well, your class at the Jedi Academy were wiped out.\u2019 I said, \u2018Rian, I saw entire planets wiped out! If anything, Luke doubles down and hardens his resolve in the face of adversity.\u2019 So that\u2019s all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hamill believed Luke would become even more of a hero and an advocate for the Jedi in the wake of Ben Solo\u2019s betrayal. The actor added: \u201cThat said \u2014 and I told [Rian] this \u2014 despite the fact that I disagree with your choices for Luke, I\u2019m going to do everything within my power to make your screenplay work as best as I can. And the only thing unfortunate about that is, I\u2019ve heard comments from fans who think that I somehow dislike Rian Johnson, and nothing could be further from the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Hamill is giving thumbs up to Lucasfilm\u2019s new bosses, don\u2019t expect him to be back as Luke Skywalker. He told\u00a0Comic Book<\/a>\u00a0last year he has no plans to return as his iconic \u201cStar Wars\u201d hero.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had my time,\u201d Hamill said. \u201cI\u2019m appreciative of that, but I think they should focus on the future and all the new characters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Best of Variety<\/p>\n

Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mark Hamill is giving the new leadership at Lucasfilm an enthusiastic endorsement. Speaking to USA Today, the Luke…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":380457,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[182052,146,44648,85,46,182063,129506,20671,76830,69940,397,73680,6377],"class_list":{"0":"post-380456","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-dave-filoni","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-george-lucas","11":"tag-il","12":"tag-israel","13":"tag-jedi-academy","14":"tag-kathleen-kennedy","15":"tag-lucasfilm","16":"tag-luke-skywalker","17":"tag-mark-hamill","18":"tag-movies","19":"tag-rian-johnson","20":"tag-star-wars"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}