Star Wars actor Mark Hamill has promised new film Episode VIII contains dialogue so good that fans will forget all about “May the Force be with you”.
The actor, who shot to fame as Luke Skywalker in 1977, has just wrapped filming on the hotly anticipated sequel.
Speaking to thousands of fans at Star Wars Celebration in London, he said: “I was looping Episode VIII yesterday and it has so many great catchphrases.
“Rian Johnson (the writer/director) is a genius. There is dialogue in there I can see on T-shirts. You will forget all about May The Force Be With You.”
Mark also denied that he was “insulted” that his part in Episode VII: The Force Awakens was so small.
In the seventh film, Luke is missing and although he is mentioned throughout, is only seen on top of a cliff in the last seconds of the film.
He said: “I wasn’t insulted, I thought it was a great surprise. They didn’t prepare me correctly though. I did all this training and went to the gym and then they said ‘you’re going to have to turn and remove your hood’.”
He added: “I want to do movies now where I don’t talk and I get second billing and am in it less than 30 seconds. It’s literally a cliffhanger. I love the visual pun.”
Mark, who answered questions from the crowd for an hour, deftly avoided revealing any spoilers about the parentage of Daisy Ridley’s character Rey, which is a much-debated topic in the fan community.
After he momentarily forgot the name of Daisy’s character, an audience member shouted out: “What’s her last name?”
He replied: “I don’t know,” before adding: “It was a trick! I will get bewildered and blurt out inadvertent spoilers!”
Mark said he knew how much fans were hoping he would give away details of the new film, which is not scheduled for release until December 2017.
He said: “You’re thinking ‘give us a detail about Episode VIII, not a spoiler but a new character or a new sequence’ and I know you will love the irony of the fact that I’m contractually forbidden to do that.”
The American actor confessed that even he finds the secrecy “really annoying”.
He said: “There are no names on the call sheet, everyone has a number. You see it and think ‘I love 22′s work, he’s twice as good as 11′.
“But they are not doing it to annoy you, they want the surprise to be in the movie theatres and not on the internet. You don’t want to know what you are getting for Christmas.”
:: Star Wars Celebration takes place at the ExCel London Exhibition Centre all weekend and features a presentation on Star Wars standalone film Rogue One, cosplay competitions and screenings.
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