Here’s How ‘The Mandalorian’ Pulled Off That Major Surprise Cameo in the Season 2 Finale

For those of you who watched the finale (and, major spoiler alert ahead for anyone who hasn’t), you might be wondering how did they do Luke Skywalker in The Mandalorian season 2. Did Mark Hamill reprise his role? Was it a body double? CGI? Turns out, the answer is “yes” to all three.

The Jedi Master from the Star Wars film franchise made a shocking appearance at the end of The Mandalorian‘s season 2 finale, “The Rescue,” which premiered on Disney+ on Friday, December 18. In the episode, a young version of Hamill’s Luke Skywalker comes to retrieve Baby Yoda—a.k.a. Grogu—and manages to rescue Mando and his crew from Moff Gideon’s Dark Troopers in the process. Between Mando’s tearful goodbye to Baby Yoda and the Child’s first meeting with Skywalker’s droid companion, R2-D2, there was plenty for Star Wars universe fans new and old to fawn over. But something about Skywalker’s appearance wasn’t quite the same as we’ve seen it in the past, of course. Hamill is older now than the age portrayed in The Mandalorian’s timeline, so the show’s creators had to make a few adjustments.

Some eagle-eyed fans noticed that actor Max Lloyd-Jones was listed as the “Double for the Jedi” during the finale’s credits, leading some to believe that he stepped in for the episode’s CGI-altered shots while Hamill voiced his scenes. However, according to showrunner Jon Favreau, Hamill did more than lend his voice for The Mandalorian‘s finale—so, it’s likely that Lloyd-Jones filled in for the more action-packed moments of The Mandalorian’s season finale (like when audiences watched a mysteriously hooded Jedi slicing through the Dark Troopers).

“We started off the whole series with the Baby Yoda reveal—with the Grogu reveal—that was a secret that everybody was really blown away by,” Favreau said during a Monday, December 21 appearance on Good Morning America. “Part of that is not telling too many people, not having merchandise that’s being tooled up and announced and everything. And then the very last episode having Mark Hamill actually on set filming and us using whatever technology we had available to de-age him and try to make him look as much like he did in the old films.”

Both Favreau and Hamill were relieved that the surprise never leaked. “It was very tricky because it’s very hard to keep a secret nowadays, especially with ‘Star Wars’ because people are so curious about it,” Favreau explained. “And there are so many people involved with the process with visual effects finishing, making it, filming it, the studios everything. Every piece of casting leaked, and we were so scared right up until it aired that our surprise cameo was gonna leak too.”

Hamill echoed his director’s comments on Twitter, where he wrote, “The fact that we were able to keep my involvement a secret for over a year with no leaks is nothing less than a miracle. A real triumph for spoiler-haters everywhere!”

The Mandalorian is available to stream on Disney+

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