Actor Mark Hamill first portrayed the iconic Star Wars character Luke Skywalker nearly 50 years ago in 1977. He was even younger than that when they actually filmed the first movie. So it's not a huge surprise that at 73 years old, he doesn't look quite the way he did in the original trilogy films.
But as he explained recently on the Smartless podcast, it does come as a shock to young Star Wars fans in particular. When they spot him in public, they can't help but wonder why this so-called Luke Skywalker doesn't look like the one on their televisions or computer screens.
"This has been happening for 20 or 30 years," he said. "They think we made Star Wars two weeks ago. There's nothing to really date it in terms of models of cars or clothing or whatever. So they have no concept of time."
I hate to admit that something similar happened to me when I was younger, discovering Star Wars for the first time. I told a friend I had a crush on Luke Skywalker, and she scrunched up her nose and said something to the effect of, "Isn't he, like, old now?" By our standards then, he absolutely was, and it finally dawned on me that I was about 25 years too late. I probably saved myself from an embarrassing fan letter writing experience, though, so there's that.
I do think the older you get, the more appreciative you are of how looks change with age. It broke my heart back when The Book of Boba Fett viewers started body-shaming Temeura Morrison to the point where he posted a workout video on social media to clap back at the haters (iconic). Chances are they were pretty young with no understanding of everything that accompanies aging. It is rarely a graceful evolution no matter how hard you're trying.
All that to say, I'm glad we got to see Hamill in the sequels -- I'm glad we got to see the Big Three main actors. They were still Leia, Luke, and Han to me regardless of all the time that had passed.