Anna Daniels
Mark Hamill will always be known as Luke Skywalker, but outside of the Star Wars saga, he’s been doing extremely interesting work with an array of eclectic characters. On top of his incredible voice work as The Joker in Batman: The Animated Series and recent turns in The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance and Avengers Assemble, Hamill has also been appearing on live-action shows like The Flash and Knightfall. But his latest role is one of the most exciting yet.
The second season of What We Do in the Shadows has recruited Mark Hamill as an ancient vampire who is a rival of Laszlo, played by Matt Berry. The new character tracks down Laszlo out of nowhere to settle a personal debt, and based on the first look photo of Mark Hamill in What We Do in the Shadows, this is going to be a lot of fun.
Mark Hamill in What We Do in the Shadows
XX
Entertainment Weekly provided the photo above, revealing Mark Hamill in What We Do in the Shadows from the upcoming episode “On the Run,” airing May 13 on FX, and they also caught up with the actor to discuss the role.
Hamill became a fan of What We Do in the Shadows after his son suggested they watch the 2014 movie directed by Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement on Father’s Day, and he immediately fell in love with it. Hamill recalled:
“I was completely unprepared for what I saw, it was so incredibly clever and compelling. It had all the elements of a horror movie and yet, it combined the magnificent with the mundane. Who thinks of things like this? I had to stop it multiple times to really absorb what we had just seen. It’s one of my favorite movies ever.”
Executive producer and co-showrunner Paul Simms said Hamill’s praise for both the movie and the show was what made them think they had a chance to get him on the show. Simms added:
“He seemed perfect for the part because he has the gravitas to play an ancient vampire rival, he’s not afraid to be silly, and he knows a thing or two about extended fight scenes.”
If you need anymore evidence of that, just see his cheeky, raunchy callback to Star Wars in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back where he plays a dildo-lightsaber wielding villain called Cock Knocker.
What We Do in the Shadows has already exceeded the lowered expectations fans of the original movie had, mostly since many TV series adaptations of movies don’t turn out very well. Hamill was one of those fans, but like many of them, he came to love the series as a great companion to the movie and an expansion of the vampire world:
“We saw the pilot and, not only was it on par with the film, but it added elements that I had never heard before like the addition of the energy vampire. The whole cast is one of the best ensembles in television history.”
Hamill assumed the role that was offered to him would be some kind of throwaway character like “the next door neighbor or someone who works at the Department of Motor Vehicles,” but instead, Hamill was thrilled to be offered the role of a vampire. The character’s name wasn’t revealed, but his mere presence is enough to send Laszlo into hiding.
We can’t wait to see Mark Hamill in What We Do in the Shadows next week, airing at 10:00 P.M. ET on FX.
Cool Posts From Around the Web: Written by: Slash
