Mark Hamill's Performance in Star Wars: The Last Jedi Might Get Him an Oscar

Mark Hamill just might get an Oscar Award next year for his performance as Luke Skywalker in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. That's the fearless forecast of executive producer J.J. Abrams who also directed Hamill in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

While a lot of the storyline and the fate that awaits Luke are still very much under lock and key, Abrams is confident that there is enough meat in the material to net Hamill an Oscar nod. One of them is apparently a monologue that is deemed academy-award-winning.

Abrams told the New York Daily News: "I think we are all going to be very upset if he does not win an Oscar, and no one more upset than Mark."

The director who also brought new life into the franchise vouches for the acting chops of his star:

"He is hysterically funny. He has done comedy. He is an amazing guy — he can do anything."

If Abrams is proven right, then that triumph would be a poignant one for Hamill. The 66-year-old actor was one of the breakout stars in 1977 after the first Star Wars movie made box-office history. But unlike his co-star Harrison Ford, he never really achieved Olympian status in Hollywood. After a dozen of lackluster films from the 1970s to the 1980s, Hamill experienced a whiff of lost glory after his voicing of the Joker in the Batman animated series gained him newfound attention and a cult following.

He has made a career voicing various villains and heroes in video games and animated series like Justice League, Ben 10, and The Ultimate Spiderman.

Hamill's rollercoaster history can certainly allow him to relate to Skywalker, the hero in the rebellion and the inheritor of all things Jedi who lost all that and retreated to seclusion in apparent failure. Luke's eventual return to his former self and his redemption can call on all of Hamill's empathy and his acting muscle. Abrams must have seen the actor rise to the challenge and then expressed his confidence in the apparently Oscar-winning performance.

The closest thing that Hamill has experienced in approaching the Oscars was as a presenter for best sound editing in the 1978 ceremony.

An Oscar award would certainly not just be positive for Hamill but it can also redefine science-fiction and fantasy films as well. The genre has always been treated as an outsider by the mainstream award-giving body and no major genre film has yet won an award for the major categories such as Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Actress.

Maybe Hamill can break that mold. He certainly does not take his iconic character for granted, and chances are he would pull out all acting stops to make him a living, breathing character again. In the clip below, he admits how terrified he was of returning to the role after an absence of 30 years.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi, directed by Rian Johnson and starring Mark Hamill, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaacs, and Carrie Fisher will open in cinemas on December 15, 2017. Only after seeing it can fans determine if Hamill's interpretation of Skywalker deserves the entertainment industry's highest acting award.