The Secret Star Wars Cameo You Missed In The Mandalorian
Mark Hamill's career was truly born when he was cast as Luke Skywalker for Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. Since the original Star Wars' release in 1977, Hamill has reprised his role as Skywalker five times — six, if you include the Star Wars Holiday Special. That's a lot of Star Wars movies, but it's not all of them.
Since Hamill is also a notable voice actor (Hamill's second most famous role is the Joker from Batman: The Animated Series), it's a little strange that he never provided voice work on any of the Star Wars cartoons. It's also a bit odd that in two of the three sequel trilogy films, Luke Skywalker doesn't speak a single word. Hamill is one of the most sought after voice talents on the planet, but he's rendered mute twice in the franchise that originally made him a star.
Well, today we bring some exciting news from the world of The Mandalorian that begins to put things right. It turns out, Mark Hamill has been a part of more Star Wars live-action productions than we previously realized.
Mark Hamill voices a familiar droid in The Mandalorian
There is a droid in Star Wars: Episode VI – The Return of the Jedi named EV-9D9 — a simple moisture vaporator droid until a programming defect turned them into a sadist who takes pleasure in torturing other droids for the Hutt crime syndicate (via Wookiepedia).
Naturally, you might not know that since there's no mention of it in the actual films, but you probably remember when C-3PO and R2-D2 came under ownership of the mighty Jabba, right? EV-9D9 is the droid that tells R2, "You're a feisty little one, but you'll soon learn some respect."
According to the final episode of Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian, series creator Jon Favreau and his team enjoyed taking background characters from the original Star Wars trilogy and repurposing them for their show — including EV-9D9.
On Chapter 5 of The Mandalorian, entitled "The Gunslinger," our titular Mandalorian, Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) seeks out bounties at the original cantina bar on Tatooine where Luke first met Han Solo and Chewbacca. EV-9D9 is now the bartender at the cantina. Djarin asks EV-9D9 if there are any bounties, and they respond, "unfortunately, the Bounty Guild no longer operates from Tatooine." It's a very short conversation, but here's the upshot — the voice of EV-9D9 is Mark Hamill's.
Now we know that Mark Hamill has been at least a voice in one more Star Wars story — but it doesn't stop there.
Mark Hamill is in every Star Wars movie but the prequels
Once it was officially revealed that Mark Hamill had provided a voice for The Mandalorian, the gloves came off. Hamill took to Twitter to not only confirm his role as EV-9D9, but to also reveal he'd been doing voices in other Star Wars adventures behind all of our backs!
Hamill tweeted, "I am vocally represented in ALL SW films except the Prequels. Thanks to @matthewood for using me in Rogue One, Solo & the Sequels, so I DO have lines in #EpVII. Hint: Look for parts played by Patrick Williams." Matthew Wood is the supervising sound editor and a sound designer for Skywalker Sound.
Here's where the mystery continues — there aren't actually any exact name matches in the credits of any of the Star Wars films Hamill mentions for "Patrick Williams." There is a "William M Patrick" listed for Rogue One and Solo: A Star Wars Story, but only under additional voices. Since that name is not associated with any other films, it seems likely that this is the pseudonym Mark Hamill meant in his tweet (via IMDb).
The mysteries go deeper, too. Hamill says he's in The Force Awakens, but there's no Patrick Williams credited. And with only "additional voices to go on in the case of Rogue One and Solo: A Star Wars Story, it's going to take some sharp-eared re-listenings to figure out which characters are voiced by Hamill.
One important note: make no assumptions based on gender in your Hamill search. EV-9D9, for the record, has "feminine programming." Hamill is somewhere in every Star Wars movie that isn't a prequel — and he could be just about anyone or anything!