Entertainment

Mark Hamill's 'Star Wars' Throwback Is Adorable

by Jordana Lipsitz
20th Century Fox

Mark Hamill proved on Saturday that he knows exactly what to share on social media to hit our nostalgia-loving bones. The Star Wars actor hit Twitter with an image from the first day on the set of 1977's Star Wars: A New Hope, which he thinks might be his very first photo taken as Luke Skywalker. It's an adorable shot of a young Hamill as Luke, and it makes me even more excited for Star Wars: The Last Jedi to come out this December.

I was already pumped for more Luke after seeing the tail-end of The Force Awakens, which featured young Rey locking eyes with her future mentor for the first time at his hide-out planet, but this just adds to the excitement. I sincerely hope that fans get to see a Yoda-like Skywalker making Rey do push-ups, with the older Jedi sitting cross-legged on her back. How great would that be?! And now, this adorable look back at a young, pre-Jedi-mentorship Skywalker just adds to my need to see more Luke in The Last Jedi. For who would the older, more Force-educated Luke be without this younger self taking on the Empire with the help of a few lovable outlaws?

In the photo, Hamill stands in the desert of Tunisia (or what Luke Skywalker might call his home planet of Tatooine) fully dressed in his Luke attire. He winces from the sun to the camera as his crossed hands rest on his heart. In the background, where sand stretches as far as the eye can see, actors in Jawa costumes look out at the robin's-egg blue sky. Hamill captioned the photo, "Taken in Tunisia early morning Day #1 waiting for my 1st shot (emerging from home for robot auction)-Perhaps the very 1st #LukePic#SW"

It's pretty crazy to think that Hamill has been now been portraying Luke Skywalker for 30 years. Sure, there was a pretty large gap in there, in which he didn't perform on-camera as the Jedi, but the role of Luke doesn't simply go away. Once Luke Skywalker, always Luke Skywalker.

Seeing such a young Luke makes it even more exciting to see what growth, development, and hanging out solo at a Jedi Temple on an aquatic planet called Ahch-To will do to the character. Will his pure heart be slightly less pure with the traumas of all he's seen? Will he be as earnest and hopeful for good as he once was? From the brief minutes we saw in The Force Awakens, I'm leaning more towards him being skeptical and not the friendliest, but we'll have to see.

I'm so excited to find out what Grandpa Skywalker will be like. Can a girl get a teaser or trailer over here? Dec. 15 is far too long from now.