“Star Wars” director J.J. Abrams thinks Mark Hamill will win an Oscar for “The Last Jedi” next year after the movie hits theaters in December.
“I think we are all going to be upset if he does not win an Oscar, and no one more upset than Mark,” Abrams told the New York Daily News at the Oscar Wilde Awards in Los Angeles.
Hamill played Luke Skywalker in the three films of the "Star Wars" original trilogy, and also appeared in 2015’s "The Force Awakens" for the last few seconds of the movie, in which he said nothing. Skywalker was missing through most of the film, in self-isolation after the destruction of the Jedi academy of which he had been in charge, years before the start of the film.
Last week, Hamill tweeted to Abrams after seeing a still photo from the movie shoot, “Slowly turn remove hood but don’t start your lengthy Oscar-worthy monologue until you get to that rock over there.”
The original "Star Wars" trilogy won numerous technical Academy awards, but no actors have ever won, and only Alec Guinness, who played Obi-Wan Kenobi was ever nominated for acting. (He didn’t win.)
Fans are hoping to see the first trailer or footage of the blockbuster at April’s Annual Star Wars Celebration. Until then, they will have to subsist on Abrams’ praise of Hamill.
“He is hysterically funny. He has done comedy. He is an amazing guy — he can do anything,” Abrams said, the Daily News reported.