Mark Hamill’s Luke Skywalker showing up in The Mandalorian remains one of the biggest surprises in Star Wars history, and Rosario Dawson told us at Star Wars Celebration that she had no idea his cameo was happening until Hamill walked onto the set of The Book of Boba Fett.
It’s already been revealed that Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau had used Jedi Master Plo Koon as a decoy when trying to hide Luke’s cameo, but during our chat they also helped share the hilarious story of how Dawson had one of the biggest surprises of her career because, by accident, no one told her the truth of what was going on.
Speaking exclusively with IGN at Star Wars Celebration, Filoni, Favreau, and Dawson gave us all the details of the hilarious incident
To keep this megaton secret, the scripts involving Luke had him replaced by Plo Koon, and Dawson was no exception to this safeguard against potential leaks. She recalled reading about Plo Koon’s arrival in the script for The Book of Boba Fett, and it confused her just as much as it would have for any Star Wars fan because we all saw the Jedi Master tragically meet his end in Revenge of the Sith.
“I was like… I don’t know… but people disappear and then they come back, so maybe it’s possible?” Dawson said. “And then Mark Hamill was on set and surprised me and it was a whole thing. He even said, ‘Plo Koon? That wouldn’t even make sense!’ and I’m like, ‘I know it didn’t make sense, but I still had to think it made sense because I got the script and everything!’
Favreau and Filoni immediately shared their regret over not telling her sooner, saying, “That was bad on us!”
“I think we assumed you’d gotten told the right information,” Filoni added with a laugh. “We were in it so much.”
“There were two secrets we knew we had to keep on the show,” Favreau said. “One was Grogu’s reveal at the end of the first episode, and the other one was Luke Skywalker at the end of season two. We were biting our nails all the way the whole way through, and we somehow miraculously made it cleanly to both of those because everything else leaked. But, unfortunately, we didn’t fill in our partner here.”
Dawson laughed it off as well, saying, “I love it, they know I can’t be trusted.”
For more, check out our chat with Hayden Christensen about returning to Anakin and all the biggest news from The Mandalorian & Grogu, Ahsoka, Andor panels.
Adam Bankhurst is a writer for IGN. You can follow him on X/Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on TikTok.
