4 years after his famous return in The Mandalorian season 2 finale, I changed my mind about Luke Skywalker's surprise cameo. All Star Wars fan remembers where they were when Luke showed up in The Mandalorianarriving just in time to save our heroes – especially Grogu. This moment was extremely emotional for all audiences, from the return of the most renowned hero in the galaxy to the farewell exchanged between Din Djarin and Grogu in the middle of it all. With these emotions running high, it was impossible to escape the excitement and enthusiasm.
Now that I've had 4 years to deal with it, however, I no longer feel as excited as I once did about Luke's appearance later in the season. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for what the creative team is behind The Mandalorian I did, because I know what a labor of love it was to keep the secret and bring such an iconic hero to life. In the grand scheme of things, though, I can't help but think that Luke might have been the wrong choice for this, and that perhaps this surprise should have been saved for another time.
Luke Skywalker was presented as an untouchable legend, unlike himself
Rejuvenation technology hasn't done you any favors
One of the biggest difficulties of bringing Luke to life in modern titles like The Mandalorian is that, without Star Wars desire to recast with a younger actor, it needs to be recreated digitally. This digitized element alone makes Luke look like a more robotic version of himself.especially with the techniques they must employ to ensure that the digital recreation works properly. This, along with the audio created from Mark Hamill's face in the original trilogy, makes Luke appear almost non-human.
This is compounded by the fact that the circumstances of Luke's arrival on Moff Gideon's light cruiser also make him seem like an untouchable savior. Instead of acting as he would in the original trilogy, Luke maintains his distance from the other characters in several ways.and his presence replaces the entire story. He doesn't seem to show any empathy for Din Djarin, who is struggling with the idea of saying goodbye to the child he has come to love as a son, and vice versa for Grogu. In general, he is portrayed as a legend rather than a person.
Luke's cameo completely overshadowed the rest of the episode
Even the emotional goodbye was achieved
Because Luke was introduced as this iconic Star Wars legend, his presence completely overshadowed everything that happened in that episode. You can ask anyone about The Mandalorian season 2 finale, and I can almost guarantee that the first thing they'll talk about – and maybe even the only thing – is Luke's appearancedespite this happening in the last minutes of the final. The rest of the episode includes a duel over the Darksaber and an emotional goodbye between father and son, but which is completely swallowed by Luke.
I was literally crying from that emotional goodbye, and the whole time, everyone was celebrating. I won't blame them for that, but it was a strange contrast.
Every year on the anniversary of the episode, it gets worse and worse. People will herald this episode as nothing more than “the return of Luke Skywalker,” though at least the goodbye between Din and Grogu is also generally acknowledged. For me, though, what proves how overshadowed this episode has become by Luke is how I remember things that happened when the episode first aired. I was literally crying from that emotional goodbye, and the whole time, everyone was celebrating. I won't blame them for that, but it was a strange contrast.
I think Luke's Mandalorian Cameo may have done more harm than good
Your story isn't really better now
Ultimately, in the long run, I'm not sure it was the right decision to have this Luke cameo in the first place. Star Wars may have bitten off more than he could chew when it came to Luke, as him being the one to catch and train Grogu put them in a difficult situation when it came to continuing Luke's story. This was not a problem in The Mandalorian necessarily, but it was certainly in the spin-off TV show The Book of Boba Fett.
Luke's time with Grogu was extremely rushed in just a single episode of that show (which certainly didn't even belong in the first place, given the title of the bounty hunter-focused TV show), and because of how the story was supposed to be, Luke's character again felt strangely unlike himself. It presented Grogu with the choice between the Jedi path and his father, which, for a character who abandoned his own training early to save his friends and loved ones, didn't feel very organic. I certainly wasn't convinced, and unfortunately this undermines Luke's character to some extent.
Luke is too iconic and revered a character to do any light work. This is why I care about Luke's cameo The Mandalorian Season 2, the further we got from it. As one of the biggest fans of The Mandalorian out there, I'm just not sure this massive appearance was the right choice – but I'm willing for the future of Star Wars to prove me wrong, if you want.