Mark Hamill Says Most of His Filming for Episode IX is Yet to Come and Talks Script Security

Luke Skywalker is on lockdown. The grizzled Jedi Master’s portrayer, Mark Hamill, will be returning for the saga’s final episode but instead of dodging First Order laser blasts – he’ll be contending with J.J. Abrams’ heightened script security.

 

While filming The Force Awakens, director J.J. Abrams used dark red colored script pages to avoid unauthorized photocopies of the script. The darker hues made the pages unreadable when deposited into a photocopier, thus keeping rogue pages from leaking the movie’s secrets. Similar techniques were utilized during filming of the Scream movies and are currently used to protect secrecy on the set of HBO’s Game of Thrones. However, Abrams has decided to up the ante for the highly anticipated Episode IX by eliminating physical copies altogether.

 

Nowadays it’s like working for some secret deep state government organization, like being in the CIA. They’re going to send rewrites over to Prague on this dark red paper that gives you a headache to read.

 

It’s unclear as to whether we’ll see Luke pick up his old lightsaber again, but there’s one thing he certainly won’t be carrying around: a script. Hamill, currently filming the History Channel drama Knightfall, was allowed a highly coveted paper script on The Last Jedi under assurances that it would be locked up in a safe every night and never leave his sight while on set. Those days are long over.

 

They’re going to fly [the rewrites] over with somebody from the company. They’re going to come and give it to me and wait for me to read it before I give it back. So no pressure! You can’t even keep it overnight. But that’s the way it is now.

 

 

More script pages for Luke should come as a delight to fans of the actor and his character – Hamill previously spent only a week on the Episode IX set but will now be returning after his duties are completed on Knightfall. During an interview with EW, Hamill admitted most of his work on Episode IX has not been filmed yet, which could indicate a larger role for Luke albeit in a less corporeal form than last we saw him.

While on set for History’s Knightfall in Prague, Hamill said he has yet to shoot most of his scenes for the next movie, but some recent script changes were delivered under a rather intense new level of security.

Hamill said he spent about a week on Episode IX previously and will return for more shooting amid his Knightfall schedule.

It remains to be seen whether these new security measures will help cut down on spoilers between now and the release of the film next year but J.J. Abrams is clearly intent on keeping the secrets of Episode IX locked down tighter than an Imperial blockade. For now, we can count on all of our questions being answered on December 20, 2019.

 

SOURCE: Entertainment Weekly 

 

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Under the twin suns of Los Angeles, Chris continues to mourn the loss of Admiral Ackbar while championing the rights of Ewoks everywhere. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @Chri5Manning for all your pun needs.

Chris Manning

Under the twin suns of Los Angeles, Chris continues to mourn the loss of Admiral Ackbar while championing the rights of Ewoks everywhere. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @Chri5Manning for all your pun needs.

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