"I finish Episode 8, and then I'm out of work.” It’s something actor Mark Hamill said on stage during a charity event in London, and it’s something some took and ran with. Speculation about what Hamill might have meant by this range from, “He was just making a statement about his job status after filming commences on the next Star Wars film,” to “Luke Skywalker is definitely going to die in Episode 8 because Hamill isn’t returning for Episode 9.” To set the record straight and calm nerves, Hamill took to Twitter with some reassurance.

As it turns out, it was the former scenario. Hamill wrote:

[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/HamillHimself/status/747548888370974720[/EMBED_TWITTER]

Some fans are clearly on edge after the events of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which saw (spoiler!!) Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) embracing the Dark Side by killing his father, Han Solo (Harrison Ford). Luke, however, only popped in for the very last scene to set up the next film, which will likely see the last Jedi master training his new Padawan, Rey (Daisy Ridley). Does this mean Luke can’t die? Of course not. Perhaps he’ll end up following Obi-Wan’s lead and becoming a Force ghost or something. We should just -- as Hamill advised with his hashtag game -- not take everything so literally in the meantime.

Rian Johnson (Looper) is helming Episode 8, while Colin Treverrow (Jurassic World) is helming Episode 9. Also returning are John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Gwendoline Christie, Dohmnall Gleeson, Lupita Nyong’o, Carrie Fisher, Anthony Daniels, and Andy Serkis, along with franchise newbies Benicio Del Toro, Laura Dern, and Kelly Marie Tran.

Star Wars: Episode VIII, which still needs an official subtitle, will wrap production soon ahead of its release on December 15, 2017. In the meantime, we have Rogue One, the first in a series of planned Star Wars anthology films.


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Image via Disney/Lucasfilm
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Image via Disney/Lucasfilm
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Image via Disney/Lucasfilm