I Really Hope Mark Hamill Is Kidding About This Solo: A Star Wars Story Cameo
Mark Hamill has a history of not only keeping tight-lipped about secrets, but of actively trolling fans, all in good fun. He knows what people are expecting, which means he knows exactly the right buttons to push. He’s like the boy who cried spoiler, at this point, and I’m honestly really hoping that’s all he was doing in his latest seeming slip of the tongue.
You may have seen headlines that Hamill accidentally spoiled a cameo that’s a big deal, but even if he did mean what he said, that’s kind of blowing it out of proportion. However, if you’d still rather not know, this is your exit.
Still here? OK, what happened was, while speaking to the Washington Post’s Cape Up podcast, Hamill got on the subject of Anthony Daniels, who you may know as the actor who has played C-3PO in the nervous protocol droid’s every appearance. You may also know that those appearances have been in every Star Wars movie to date, including anthology movie Rogue One. He then seemed to confirm that streak would continue in Solo, telling them, “Tony Daniels is so happy ’cause he’s in every single Star Wars movie. Every single one. All the prequels. He’s in Rogue One, He’s in Solo,—Whoops! I hope that’s not …”
Hamill himself even mentioned that it’s not exactly the mind-blowing reveal it’s been made out to be, saying, “That’s not such a reveal. All Star Wars fans expect him to be in every movie.” If it’s true, finding a place for him in Solo likely required a bit more creativity than, say, Rogue One, where his appearance made sense as things led right into the events of A New Hope.
While I wouldn’t begrudge Daniels the honor of appearing in every Star Wars movie made, though, this is exactly the kind of thing I wish Star Wars movies would stop doing. We all recognized, several movies ago, that it was a bit silly to have Darth Vader build C-3PO when he was a kid, and since then, each movie has not only made a lot of overt references to the ones that came before, but frequently the same references, repeated every single time.
This might make me a bad Star Wars fan—and if you’re still enjoying that, don’t let me stop you—but I wish they’d stop. I’m tired of hearing about the odds, or that someone has a bad (or good) feeling. There’s a big difference between clever, subtle references and recycling the same old material ad nauseam. Oddly, it reminds me of yesterday’s trailer for the fifth season of Arrested Development, which seemed more like a remix of the original series’ greatest hits than its own thing. It’s one of my least favorite things about the trend of reviving every old show and movie franchise endlessly.
I don’t want another joke about odds or bad/good feelings, which increasingly feels like the movie is jabbing me with its elbow and whispering “Get it?” when “it” is impossible to miss. I don’t want to see the same characters contorted into contrived cameo appearances just for the sake of it (as amusing as I find the idea that R2-D2 is Star Wars’ narrator). I’d rather the new entries in the franchise start their own traditions. Maybe I’m just ready for that sooner than everyone else, when the sequel trilogy hasn’t even ended and the anthology movies are still taking place in the past, but I really hope it happens before everyone else gets sick of the same old material.
(via io9, image: Lucasfilm)
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