50 Star Wars secrets that will blow your mind
By Josh Hill
7. Mark Hamil’s Face Debate
This is a heated debate among Star Wars fans, and one that won’t go away even though we’ve seemingly been given an answer to it. The story goes that before Empire Strikes Back, Mark Hamill was in a serious car accident that required facial reconstruction. That much is true — about the accident anyways — but there are varying accounts as to what effect it had on Star Wars.
Some say the accident happened after A New Hope began filming and his surgery was needed before reshoots. Other accounts say that it happened before Empire Strikes Back and the Wampa attack scene and subsequent frost bite Luke suffers is meant as explication for his appearance post-accident.
The real story is that the accident happened at the tail-end of shooting for A New Hope in 1977 and facial surgery was needed. But that was a few years before production on Empire started, meaning the scene wasn’t written as a cover for the accident. Hamill does admit, though, that the scars we see, at least some of them, are real.
Next: 6. Obi-Wan Made Lightsaber Noises