The Skywalker Saga is one of Disney’s most prized possessions. It brought in a new hero. As long as Star Wars has been here, Luke Skywalker has been a cult hero. Now, it does feel like the milking has to stop. Mark Hamill, played Luke in the films as well as in the three shows for Disney+.

The show used a young character and deepfaked Hamill’s younger face onto ther young actor. Luke’s return to the Star Wars franchise is a problem for Disney’s acquisition of the film series. You can’t call it a good thing anymore. Luke’s return in the Mandalorian may have been a moment, but in the Book of Boba Fett, it really didn’t give much. An oversaturated use of him overfed us over the 30 year gap between ‘A New Hope’ and ‘The Force Awakens‘.

Luke’s Journey Through Star Wars

When Luke was first shown in A New Hope, he was living on Tatooine with his uncle Owen and aunt Beru. Obi-Wan Kenobi, who was Anakin’s old mentor, helped him become a Jedi Knight. At birth, Luke was separated from Princess Leia.

With Han Solo, Chewbacca, and Lando Calrissian, they defeated the Galactic Empire led by Emperor Palpatine, and now Luke discovers his sister. Luke, now a Jedi Master, took Rey under his wing in The Force Awakens, many years after the events of the first film. Season 2 of The Mandalorian told us that Luke was Grogu’s mentor, which The Book of Boba Fett episode 6 looked into.

Seeing Luke in The Book of Boba Fett shows that Star Wars doesn’t want to let go of the character. George Lucas’ world is so full, it is disappointing that even new Disney movies seem to focus on one character, who has been at the heart of the franchise since its beginning. Disney needs to let Lucasfilm push what they’re aiming for: New blood.

Was Luke’s Return Really Necessary?

Mark Hamill’s appearance in Disney’s Star Wars sequel trilogy was supposed to end it all for Luke Skywalker. After his death in The Last Jedi, the character should have been done with the saga. But no, the studios did really find a way to bring the figure back. Star Wars shows on Disney+ have done a good job of telling stories that aren’t like the typical ones.

Pedro Pascal’s Din Djarin and Temuera Morrison’s Boba Fett gave a new edge to Star Wars. Exploring western themes and such. Bringing Luke into this, was a part done over by the writers. How is George Lucas remaining quiet when he sees his own characters being milked by the studios over and over again?

A big part of why The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett were so exciting was that they both introduced new characters and/or focused on characters that had been forgotten about before.

Heroes like Din and Grogu take the lead in The Mandalorian, but the show also added a new villain in the form of Giancarlo Esposito’s Moff Gideon, who is very interesting. With the exception of the prequel trilogy, Luke has been in every Star Wars movie except that one.

This makes his cameos in Disney+’s show seem extreme. Especially common in Disney+ shows because Luke was already a big part of the movies. Even though Luke has only made cameo appearances on the show, he still overshadows the show’s main characters due to his established status.

Using Visual Effects To Bring The 1977 Luke Back

Using CGI to look and sound like Luke when he was younger is an impressive feat of technology. It couldn’t have been a necessity, though. A younger Mark Hamill was used to make Luke for the finale of The Mandalorian season 2.  A different actor played the character. In The Book of Boba Fett, another body double was used with the same deepfake method to make Luke look better.

Hamill did not voice Luke in either The Mandalorian or The Book of Boba Fett. Instead, the show’s sound editors used an AI neural network. This made Luke’s voice sound like it came from recordings of him that were made before.

The main problem is that Luke’s CGI face looks very different from live-action characters, and the robotic tone of his voice is very off-putting to many people. Star Wars didn’t have to do this in the first place.

To make things even worse, the computer-generated version of Luke sets a bad example for future movies that want to show younger versions of fictional characters or real-life people.

As an alternative to hiring an actor, some studios choose to make people look and sound like they aren’t real. This actually, takes away from how real people sound and look. When Disney used CGI and sound technology to bring Luke back to life, it proved their advancement in visual effects. Just because they can use them to bring him back doesn’t mean that they should.

Overshadowing Established Conflicts

During The Mandalorian season 2 finale, Luke’s overbearing presence can be seen in how he comes in and out of the show. Din and Bo-Katan were fighting it out against the droids, on their mission to save Grogu. But, in the end, when they all felt helpless against the droids, Luke came out of nowhere to get Grogu and take him to the village for training.

It’s obvious, we all cheered at that moment, but that moment didn’t justify why we watched the show. The problem is that he stole the show from The Mandalorian’s main characters and their conflict. Thus, the hero wasn’t Bo-Katan, Cara Dune, not even Din. But it was rather Luke.

The new characters in Star Wars’ sequel trilogy and shows on Disney+ help expand the scope of the movie and TV series. Star Wars ignores the fact that Rey, Finn, and Poe are all well-rounded characters.  They can carry the torch into the next generation of Star Wars fans.

Luke doesn’t do anything special. At this point, he’s been used so much that he is just like a fictional consultant to bridge continuity. Disney should not be concerned with filling in all the gaps in Luke’s story. It’s an opportunity in a wide galaxy that Lucasfilm is shoving into many shows.