About a month ago I posted an article on why episode VII will be good. I made some good points in the article, but was remiss in mentioning one person: Mark Hamill. The fact is that Mark Hamill is a far better actor now than he was when he was first cast in the original Star Wars trilogy. When Hamill was originally cast, he had some acting experience on television in the form of a sit-com and the soap opera General Hospital. Star Wars was his first major film break, and he was cast in the lead as Luke Skywalker. That’s a lot of pressure on a relatively inexperienced actor, not to mention the fact that George Lucas is not known for his great ability to direct actors. So the performances that we got, while good, were probably not great. Since Return of the Jedi however, Hamill has expanded his acting to Broadway, and most famously to voice over work.

For those of you who do not know what I am referring to, during the nineties and up to today Hamill has provided the voice of the Joker in Batman: The Animated Series and the video games Arkham Asylum and Arkham City. All three are regarded as some of the best incarnations of the Batman mythos ever. Much of that is because of Hamill’s portrayal of the iconic Joker. In fact just recently Hamill gave us a small bit of that increase in acting skill that you can view below.

My point is this, when Hamill entered the Star Wars world he was young and largely inexperienced; he will return to the Star Wars world as an accomplished actor and the audience will reap the benefits.