Mark Hamill on AI Deepfakes, Letting Go of STAR WARS, and Going Full Ghost Pirate in SPONGEBOB

Mark Hamill didn’t expect this year to turn into a whirlwind. Life had other plans. After losing his home in the Palisades fires in January and relocating with his family, the 74-year-old actor suddenly found himself promoting three major projects back to back.

There’s Mike Flanagan’s moving fantasy drama The Life of Chuck, Stephen King’s bleak endurance story The Long Walk, and the delightfully unhinged animated adventure The SpongeBob Movie: Searching for SquarePants, where Hamill voices the Flying Dutchman with gleeful menace.

It’s been chaotic, emotional, and oddly fitting for a performer whose career has always lived at the crossroads of sincerity and spectacle. Hamill told Variety:

“You can’t really control it, but this was a really, really active year. I don’t have anything lined up, so maybe next year won’t be so active.”

That sense of unpredictability has defined the past decade of his career. After returning as Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, Hamill seriously considered stepping away. The idea of ending things cleanly mattered to him:

“As much as an actor appreciates a good entrance, you want to find a way to end your career in a way where you can hold your head high.”

Then The Fall of the House of Usher happened. A conversation with Mike Flanagan and Trevor Macy flipped a switch. The role reminded him why he fell in love with acting in the first place.

“It was a character part that would’ve been routine in voiceover. In voiceover, they don’t care what you look like, so you’re going to play many roles you’d never get on camera. They cast with their ears, not their eyes.”

That freedom has fueled what Hamill now sees as his third act. Voice acting lets him stretch, experiment, and play wildly theatrical characters without worrying about age or appearance.

The Flying Dutchman is a perfect example. When he signed on, Hamill assumed the ghost pirate was a brand-new creation. Then he realized the character had a long history, famously voiced by Brian Doyle-Murray.

“I start to do my homework, and it’s a character that’s been done for years by Brian Doyle-Murray. I’ve been a fan of his since ‘Saturday Night Live.’

“I loved him on Chris Elliott’s show ‘Get a Life.’ He’s just terrific. But I was too intimidated to listen to what he had done. I thought I’d better do my version, and I’ll listen to his later.”

Hamill leaned into the madness. He continued:

“With a character like a ghost pirate in the world of ‘SpongeBob,’ you can go as big as you want. It’s like children’s theater. There is no too big.”

Fans have already started drawing comparisons between the Flying Dutchman and Hamill’s legendary take on the Joker. From the inside, he didn’t feel it.

“When you’re in the head of the character, I didn’t see the parallels. Now that I’m sort of distanced from it, I can see how people find comparisons between the two. I love both characters in different ways, and they’re both fun to play.”

While animation continues to energize him, Hamill’s relationship with Star Wars has shifted into something calmer and more reflective. He keeps his distance from fan-made deepfakes and AI-generated clips, even as they grow more realistic.

When told about a convincing AI scene of Luke Skywalker speaking with Obi-Wan Kenobi’s Force Ghost, “I haven’t seen that. Is it live-action or animated?” he asked.

After hearing it looked like a lost scene from Return of the Jedi, he shrugged it off as part of the strange divide between actors and fandom.

“Every actor does the job, and when the job is completed, they move on to the next project. They don’t really hang on to it.”

Still, the future of AI make him think, especially as Disney expands into generative tools tied to Star Wars.

“It’s fascinating to see it develop, and I’m also apprehensive about how it will be used. The story of the AI-generated actress that got signed by a major agency is mind-boggling.

Is she going to stay 33, or whatever her age is, forever? It’s obviously hard to predict the future, but I guess I’m gonna have to talk to my family about if they want me to be in a ‘Star Wars’ movie 30 years from now after I’m gone.”

For now, he’s content being a fan. He talked about how much he loves Rogue One, The Mandalorian, and Andor, and is happy to watch the galaxy thrive without him. “I had my time,” he said. “Now I’m just a fan.”

That mindset ties back to what has always driven him. Escapism. Hamill never forgets that his job is to help people step away from the noise of the world, even if only for a couple of hours.

“I’m in the business of escapism,” he said. “If I can take people’s minds off the horrible headlines, especially for those affected by the fires, then I’ve done my job.”

It’s the same reason he’s drawn to characters like Luke Skywalker and the Flying Dutchman. They exist in heightened worlds where optimism and absurdity can coexist.

“These are troubled times. The movie is therapeutic in that regard. You go to something like ‘The SpongeBob Movie,’ you leave all your troubles behind. It’s healthy in troubling times to have an escape.”

That philosophy traces back to George Lucas. Hamill is quick to point out that Star Wars works on multiple levels.

“The original ‘Star Wars’ was an allegory commenting on the Vietnam War,” he said. “So there’s the resistance, the rebels, the Empire. It’s surprisingly relevant when you consider what’s going on in our country today.”

As for retirement, Hamill doesn’t rush to define it anymore. He’s achieved dreams he once chased obsessively, from Broadway to animation. As a kid, he studied voice actors like Clarence Nash and Mel Blanc, scribbling names off record sleeves long before the internet made curiosity easy. Playing the Flying Dutchman feels like a full-circle moment.

“It’s a very unique job. Doing the Flying Dutchman is one of the reasons I love being an actor. And the fact that I got to play it in live-action segments.

“I mean, it was crazy fun. If people have even a fraction of the good time that I’m having doing this character, they’re in for the time of their lives.”

For someone who once thought about bowing out quietly, Hamill is still chasing the joy and still finding new ways to disappear into characters that let audiences forget the world for a bit.