So here’s the setting. It’s 1983. Filming on Return of the Jedi has wrapped up that year and the film, the final in the original Star Wars trilogy, is a huge hit. Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker is a global star.
There is already speculation that creator/director George Lucas is working on prequels and sequels to the trilogy that Jedi completed. The prequels waited a long while but debuted in 1999 with The Phantom Menace.
In the 1983 talk show clip below, Mark Hamill aka Luke Skywalker casually mentions a discussion that he had recently had with Lucas.
“He at one time said, ‘Would you consider playing an Obi-Wan type character handing Excalibur down to the next generation?'” Hamill says Lucas asked him.
“I said ‘When would that be?’ and at the time he said, ‘Oh, around 2011.'”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UGV7WVB-bA
Lucas was only about four years off. Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens comes out a year from now. Hamill/Skywalker is in the film, but not in a starring role.
Disney announced the film just one year off from Lucas’ prediction, in October 2012.
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