The first news about Star Wars: Episode IX has begun to hit the rumor mill, so you can be sure fans are getting excited. As usual, Mark Hamill is having some fun with that excitement. The Luke Skywalker actor has a sense of humor on par with the Joker and while he clearly loves Star Wars he doesn't mind poking the fans a little in the name of fun. In that vein, he recently posted some "breaking news" regarding the newest piece of casting for the end of the current trilogy, an empty robe.
Mark Hamill is, of course, having some fun with the fact that Luke Skywalker vanished at the end of Star Wars: The Last Jedi. His robe fell to the rock he was sitting on before blowing away. Apparently, the robe will still be important in Episode IX, and director J.J. Abrams has found the perfect robe to play the part.
Of course, the real question fans have is not will we see the robe again, it's will we see the man in the robe again. While Luke Skywalker may have become one with the Force at the end of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, that hardly guarantees that we won't see the character in Episode IX. Alec Guinness spent more time as a force ghost in the original Star Wars trilogy than he did as a living character. Most fans seem to expect that we will see Luke again in one form or another, but that has yet to be confirmed.
The "robe casting" follows on the reveals of other news for the upcoming film that would appear to be more legit. First, we received an apparent confirmation that Billy Dee Williams will return to the Star Wars franchise as Lando Calrissian. More recently it's been reported that one of J.J. Abrams go-to actresses, Keri Russell, has also been cast in the film.
With filming set to get underway soon, we'll very likely get at least a few official confirmations from Lucasfilm regarding casting, even though we likely won't get a lot of other details. With J.J. Abrams back at the helm as writer and director, we can expect the entire film will be placed inside Abrams' famed "mystery box" meaning that we'll get even less information than we otherwise might.
Star Wars: Episode IX is set for release in December of 2019. Until then, check out everything that we do know about the new film and keep following CinemaBlend as rumors are sure to begin flying soon and likely won't stop until the end of the trilogy is finally here.
