Mark Hamill Lends His Luke Skywalker Voice to the People of Ukraine With Air Alert App
Mark Hamill has agreed to voice Luke Skywalker once again in an unexpected fashion. He has recorded lines for a safety app that will alert Ukrainian citizens at risk of attack as they resist an ongoing invasion from the Russian Federation.
AP News has revealed that Mark Hamill has added his voice as an option to Ukraine’s Air Alert app, which warns citizens when they are in danger of potential oncoming attacks, advising them to seek shelter. Mark Hamill offered standard warnings in his voice, such as the basic warning “Attention. Air raid alert. Proceed to the nearest shelter.” Of course, he also took the opportunity to use quotes from the Star Wars movies. Among the quotes that he recorded are one of his reprimand to the Emperor — “Don’t be careless. Your overconfidence is your weakness.” — in Return of the Jedi, recontextualized as a safety warning. Of course, he also says the ever-famous “May the Force be with you.” when the danger has subsided.
Speaking to AP News, Mark Hamill indicated that he was inspired by the courage of the people of Ukraine in the face of a hostile foreign invasion:
“[The people of Ukraine have] shown such resilience under such terrible resistance. A fairy tale about good versus evil is resonant with what’s going on in Ukraine. The Ukrainian people rallying to the cause and responding so heroically… It’s impossible not to be inspired by how they’ve weathered this storm. It does inspire people. Everyone flashes back to being 6 years old again. And if the movie can help people get through hard times, so much the better.”
Aside from lending his voice to the app, he also noted that he continues to fundraise for the people of the war-torn nation, doing things such as selling autographed Star Wars posters for charity:
“Here I sit in the comfort of my own home when in Ukraine there are power outages and food shortages and people are really suffering. It motivates me to do as much as I can.”
As of now, the Air Raid app has been downloaded 14 million times, covering over 30% of Ukraine’s population. There were over 19 thousand air raid alerts across Ukraine in the first year of the full-scale invasion.
Grant has been a fan of Star Wars for as long as he can remember, having seen every movie on the big screen. When he’s not hard at work with his college studies, he keeps himself busy by reporting on all kinds of Star Wars news for SWNN and general movie news on the sister site, Movie News Net. He served as a frequent commentator on SWNN’s The Resistance Broadcast.
