Robert Englund Insists that He’s Responsible for Mark Hamill Landing Star Wars Role

There's no denying that Mark Hamill's life changed forever when he took on the role of Luke Skywalker in the original Star Wars trilogy. The actor would become an overnight sensation following the critical and financial success of A New Hope and fast forward to today, he's now regarded by many as a bonafide legend. Of course, his road to Hollywood success can be credited to the people responsible for giving him the heads up to audition for Star Wars but according to one actor, he's responsible for Hamill's rise to superstardom.

Credit: Lucasfilm

Nightmare on Elm Street star Robert Englund has claimed on multiple occasions that he played a huge part in Mark snagging the role. He even constantly tells his side of the story during convention appearances, much to the chagrin of Hamill's agent. In a recent appearance on Michael Rosenbaum's Inside of You podcast, the Freddy Krueger actor reiterated that he was the first person to give Hamill info about the audition.

He recalled: "Mark Hamill was my roommate and I said to him, ‘You know, George Lucas is doing another movie and you might be right for this.' So my once upon a time in a Hollywood story is that Freddy Krueger told Luke Skywalker to call his agent and he got the part. His agent hates me telling this story because she insists that she already submitted him for the part."

Hamill previously came out to say that while Englund's story is legitimate, it was in fact his agent who first gave him a heads up about the project. In fact, his agent already set up a meeting with Lucasfilm and we don't know for sure how Robert would feel about that. Still, the true takeaway from this is that Hamill was always destined to play the character, and the universe clearly wanted for it to happen.


Meanwhile, the entire Skywalker saga is available for streaming on Disney+.


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