Who Played This Classic Star Wars Character In The Mandalorian?
Contains spoilers for The Mandalorian season 2 finale
It looks like Grogu has a new best friend in The Mandalorian. The season 2 finale of the epic Star Wars series, entitled "Chapter 16: The Rescue," sees Mando's (Pedro Pascal) long, hard journey to find a suitable caretaker for the Child come to a stunning end, with a surprise cameo that's sending shockwaves through the fan community.
After tracking down Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito), Mando and his allies seem to be in dire straits as Dark Troopers threaten to break through the door and wipe them all out. However, they get a major assist when a certain Jedi we all know and love shows up to do some damage control, and Grogu is particularly delighted to watch the live surveillance footage of that green lightsaber slicing through a whole ship full of droids with ease.
When he removes his cloak hood, we learn that it is none other than Luke Skywalker who has come to save the day and take the Child under his wing for some crucial Jedi training. Thanks to visual effects magic, Luke appears as young and spry as the day we first met him in Episode IV, and actor Mark Hamill is specifically named in the cast section of the episode's credits. But Hamill isn't the only one who brought Luke Skywalker back to life in The Mandalorian.
You may know the other actor behind Luke's return
Although Hamill's name is given prominence in the finale's credits, a closer look at the rollout reveals exactly who it was that helped him pull off that epic comeback. Actor Max Lloyd-Jones is listed as the "Double for Jedi" alongside other guest stars for the episode — which means that while Hamill's face is digitally de-aged and superimposed for Luke's close-up scene, LLoyd-Jones is responsible for the body work that was done for Luke's appearance in the show.
Lloyd-Jones is no stranger to having his own face appear on-screen in other series and films. The actor has an impressive list of acting credits, particularly on the TV scene. Supernatural fans might remember him for his guest role as Charlie Whitshire in season 4, and he enjoyed a recurring role as Noah in Freeform's second season of Switched at Birth. More recently, he starred as Tom Thornton in When Calls the Heart, and Lloyd-Jones has also appeared in guest roles for other hit series, like Teen Wolf, iZombie, Once Upon a Time, and Reign. He's also had some major experience with body work for heavily digitalized films, as he portrayed the adored ape Blue Eyes in the 2017 blockbuster War for the Planet of the Apes.