CGI Luke Skywalker Looks Better Because He Looks Less Like Mark Hamill

Warning! SPOILERS ahead for The Book of Boba Fett episode 6.

The CGI Luke Skywalker in The Book of Boba Fett episode 6 looks better than he did in The Mandalorian because he looks a little less like actor Mark Hamill. In the first three Star Wars movies released in the 1970s and ’80s, Hamill played the farm boy turned Jedi, Luke Skywalker. Hamill returned to the role for 2017’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi, set roughly 30 years after the original trilogy, this time playing an older Luke in line with his present age. For Luke’s appearance in The Mandalorian season 2, however, a younger Luke was needed given its place in the Star Wars timeline just five years after Return of the Jedi.

To achieve a younger Luke Skywalker for The Mandalorian, the production turned to digital effects. Hamill still played the role but his footage was de-aged. A stand-in actor who closely matched a young Hamill’s features and build, Max Lloyd-Jones, was also used, and The Mandalorian‘s Luke was created from a blending of Hamill’s and his performances. For the young Luke’s voice, neither actor recorded the dialogue, and instead, an A.I. program was used to synthesize his voice from collected audio of Hamill during the RotJ era. The final results received a mixed response at best, but that didn’t deter The Book of Boba Fett from giving a CGI Luke Skywalker another shot.

In The Book of Boba Fett episode 6, “From the Desert Comes a Stranger,” Luke Skywalker is again a mixture of live performance and digital effects, but thankfully, the final results are a big improvement over The Mandalorian season 2. The role is still credited to Mark Hamill, and it’s possible he was again on set to play the part (though there’s been no official confirmation). Also credited are Graham Hamilton as a performance artist and Scott Lang as a stunt double, replacing Lloyd-Jones as the stand-ins for a younger Luke. Presumably, a similar digital process as before was used to create the CGI Luke Skywalker, though there have likely been technological advancements even in this short time. Lucasfilm also hired a YouTuber who had previously produced a better deepfake version of a young Luke, and surely their talents played some part in improving CGI Luke as well. But in addition to all of that, the reason The Book of Boba Fett‘s CGI Luke looks better than the one seen in The Mandalorian season 2 could be that they aren’t trying as hard to perfectly replicate 1983 Mark Hamill.

The VFX team for The Mandalorian season 2 painstakingly recreated Mark Hamill as he appears in Return of the Jedi to the best of their ability and available technology, but the end result still had a creepy, uncanny valley quality to it. This is because the human brain knows when it’s seeing the real deal and when it’s not, no matter how accurate the recreation is. For The Book of Boba Fett, the CGI Luke doesn’t look identical to Hamill circa 1983, but it winds up being a more realistic effect overall. This could be a result of improved technology, the use of deepfake either over or in conjunction with de-aging, or simply a better blending of Hamill’s and the stand-in actors’ features. However it’s been achieved, it does appear the goal this time was more about creating an acceptable live-action Luke Skywalker rather than a duplicate of Hamill as he looked in RotJ.

The result is a character who audiences can believe is Luke Skywalker, who looks similar to but not exactly like Hamill, and who doesn’t come across as some eerie simulation. The Book of Boba Fett‘s CGI Luke Skywalker is more an impression than a true recreation in the way that artists have been representing Luke in other mediums for decades, be it on book covers, in comic books, or video games. While casting a new actor as Luke was always (and remains) an option, Lucasfilm has instead digitally created an actor who can carry on the role of Luke for years to come. And given the better response this CGI Luke is receiving, it’s almost certain this won’t be the last time he’ll appear in live-action Star Wars.

New episodes of The Book of Boba Fett release Wednesdays on Disney+.

About The Author

Sarah Moran
(1214 Articles Published)

Sarah Moran is a news editor for Screen Rant and has been contributing to the site since 2014. She primarily writes features and covers the ongoing development of current movies and television shows. Sarah is a graduate of THE Ohio State University where she earned her B.A. in Film Studies in 2009.

Sarah’s favorite movies range from studio era classics to the latest sci-fi and superhero blockbusters. Her favorite TV shows are animated, and she’s always up to watch a documentary. Sarah spends her free time playing too many video games and proudly supporting the Columbus Crew, the greatest team the world has ever seen.

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