Star Wars Legend Mark Hamill Retired From Live-Action Roles Until This Netflix Series

Back in 2020, Mark Hamill didn't officially announce his retirement from on-screen acting, but he did admit that he had come to a decision. Hamill, a talented and prolific voice actor, must have felt that voice work was easier to land, and elected to perform only voice roles from then on out. Back when Hamill was a teenager in the early 1970s, he dreamed of leading man roles, and secured multiple jobs on hit TV shows like "The Partridge Family," "Night Gallery," and "General Hospital." His big break couldn't have been bigger, as he was cast as the lead character, Luke Skywalker, in George Lucas' ultra-blockbuster "Star Wars." 

As the public was able to see, though, "Star Wars" was both a blessing and a curse. It was lucrative for the actor, but also limiting. He was typecast. Hamill struggled to find other leading man roles. "Corvette Summer" wasn't the same level of blockbuster as "Star Wars." Part of his early career, though, was performing voice roles on shows like "Jeannie" and "The New Scooby-Doo Movies," so he had been accruing experience in the medium. In 1992, he was cast as the Joker in "Batman: The Animated Series," and he had found a new icon to call his own. Hamill redefined the character for a generation. His voice acting career took off after that, and he accrued literally hundreds of credits. 

In live-action, though, Hamill still struggled to find work. He only appeared in 13 movies from 2001 to 2020, several of them "Star Wars" projects. In a recent interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Hamill had said that, by 2020, he was more or less done with on-camera work, content to rely on his voice for the rest of his career. About then, though, he was approached by director Mike Flanagan ("Doctor Sleep") about playing an amoral lawyer in a miniseries adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher." The role was too juicy to pass up. Hamill would remain in live-action after all. 

Flanagan's "The Fall of the House of Usher" is a very loose adaptation of Poe's story, and also incorporates other elements from throughout Poe's entire bibliography. Hamill plays the lawyer for the Usher family, a shifty character named Arthur Gordon Pym. The character's name and backstory were extrapolated from Poe's 1838 novel (the author's only one) "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket." That book is a bizarro sea adventure that gets weirder and more monstrous and it progresses. In Flanagan's version of things, Pym returned from his adventures, went to law school, and became the "fixer" for the corrupt, crumbling Usher family.

"The Fall of the House of Usher," which aired on Netflix in 2023, was widely beloved and received many positive reviews. Hamill, it seems, was wise to take part. The actor spoke of his decision to participate in "Usher" in the Hollywood Reporter interview, citing his age (although he is only 73) as the impetus for semi-retirement, and Flanagan as the reason he came back. In Hamill's words: 

"There was a point about five years ago where I thought that it's not easy getting older, and it's even harder when you're doing it on camera. So I thought that I've had enough on-camera. I'm going to continue working but in voiceover only. Then Mike Flanagan and his producer, Trevor Macy, contacted me to do 'The Fall of the House of Usher.' I was playing the family lawyer to a really evil family — a soulless, truly evil guy. And I loved it. It was minimalist. It was unlike anything I had ever done, and it sort of rekindled my satisfaction of doing things on camera."

After that, Hamill immediately secured several other satisfying, high-profile roles right away.

Hamill's two most recent credits are both very impressive and, by coincidence, both based in the works of Stephen King. Hamill said that his recent appearance in the sentimental drama "The Life of Chuck" is one of his favorites, saying: 

"Then, [...] 'The Life of Chuck,' I've seen it now three times. My wife has seen it like six times. She says, 'It's my favorite thing you've ever done.'" 

Then, immediately thereafter, Hamill played a soulless, wicked, unnamed Army Major — the film's central antagonist — in the dystopian drama "The Long Walk." In that film, he gives "inspirational" speeches to the fifty contestants of a bloody, days-long competition that involves walking and walking until you literally drop dead. Hamill's character is the face of a mysterious fascist government that lurks, phantom like, in the background. He is truly terrifying and his character is frustratingly arrogant. It's a very good performance. 

Over the many decades of his career, Hamill has become more pragmatic, while also honing his craft. He still occasionally lends his voice to the Joker for video games, but has a wide vocal range besides, having most recently appeared on the TV series "Digman!" From 2021 to 2024, he played the voice of Skeletor on the new "Masters of the Universe" series, and has a recurring role on "Invincible." It remains to be seen what future live-action projects Hamill will take part in, but if "The Fall of the House of Usher," "The Life of Chuck," and "The Long Walk" are any indicator, he'll have his pick of roles.