Recently, Mark Hamill stated that he would be fine with the character of Luke Skywalker being recast, and if fact stated that he would prefer that approach than the de-aged CGI portrayal that we’ve seen in the character’s last two appearances. While it’s more than likely we will one day get a Luke Skywalker story that features a new actor taking on the role, it’s important to remember that despite the character being synonymous with Mark Hamill, he isn’t the only person who’s ever portrayed Luke. In fact, a surprising number of people have played Luke Skywalker in official Lucasfilm projects.
Joshua Fardon – Return of the Jedi radio Drama
While the first radio adaptations for Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back were created in the early 1980s, around the same time the original trilogy was being produced, financial problems caused a 13 year delay before the radio adaptation was made for the third installment of the Star Wars trilogy. While Mark Hamill reprised the role of Luke for the first two radio dramas, the role went to actor Joshua Fardon for the Return of the Jedi. Perhaps Hamill wasn’t available for the recording of Return of the Jedi, or perhaps the troubled development and delays resulted in them having to go in a different direction. Whatever the reason, in 1996, Fardon became the first person besides Mark Hamill to play Luke Skywalker.
Aidan Barton – Revenge of the Sith
The only person to get a chance to play two members of the Skywalker family, Aidan Barton was the baby that portrayed both twins, Luke and Leia at the end of Revenge of the Sith. During the production of the movie, Roger Barton, the editor of the film, suggested that they use his newborn son when it came time to shoot the closeups of the infant twins. Barton’s mother was also present for the filming and doubled for both Aunt Beru and Queen Breha Organa in the scenes where they held the babies. Aidan Barton isn’t credited for his work in the film, but is mentioned in the “special thanks” at the end of the credits.
Grant Feely – Obi-Wan Kenobi
While young Leia was a major character in the Obi-Wan Kenobi miniseries that aired on Disney+, a younger version of Luke Skywalker appeared in several episodes as well. Having been born in 2011, The Mandalorian was the only piece of Star Wars media that Feely had seen when he was cast to play a young version of Luke. Deborah Chow, the director of all six episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi, instructed Feely not to watch any additional Star Wars material before filming, especially not any material that Luke Skywalker appeared in. She didn’t want the performance of a younger Luke to be affected by how the older version of the character had been portrayed.
Eric Bauza – Star Wars LEGO projects
While the Star Wars LEGO specials aren’t a part of the official Star Wars canon, they do provide a continuous narrative of their own, and are for many new fans, some of their earliest introductions to characters like Luke Skywalker. The go to performer for Luke Skywalker in LEGO form has been Eric Bauza who is also the current voice actor for many of the Looney Tunes, including Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Porky Pig. In addition to his work as Luke Skywalker, Bauza has also gotten to play a character in the official Star Wars canon, voicing the character of Gorrak Wiles in Star Wars: Resistance.
Those who helped bring the character to life in The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett
Even though this whole discussion began with Mark Hamill talking about younger versions of the character not being brought back through digitally de-aged performances, the two times that has happened so far involved a lot more people than just Mark Hamill to bring the characters to life. For Luke’s appearance at the end of Season 2 of The Mandalorian, actor Max Lloyd Jones helped to physically bring the character to life on screen, while Matt Ruggetti served as Luke’s stunt double for the scene. In The Book of Boba Fett, the character was physically portrayed by Graham Hamilton, with stunt work by Scott Lang. While the performance is credited to Mark Hamill, and he was obviously involved with bringing Luke back for the two series, it could be argued that these other men were just as involved in portraying Luke as Hamill was for these two particular performances.