Though the talk these days is that we might be seeing some footage from the upcoming Star Wars: Episode IX before the end of the month, the cast for now are staying decidedly tight-lipped on what’s to come in next year’s trilogy-closer, and while Mark Hamill is no exception, he’s at least pretty open about the excessive measures taken by the studio to keep this content a secret.
In an interview with EW about the actor’s involvement in the second season of Knightfall, Hamill reflected on his early days in the Star Wars franchise, and how the spoiler-proofing protocol for the property has seriously intensified in the decade since:
“You know how it is these days, every time you sign NDAs. I remember back when I read the first Star Wars [script], I was like, ‘Wow, that’s the goofiest thing I’ve ever read.’ I gave it to my best friend to read, and I said, ‘What do you think of it?’ He said, ‘It’s really wild, it’s crazy, can I give it to Meredith?’ ‘Sure, go ahead.’ It went around to all my friends. Of course back then nobody cared. Nowadays it’s like working for some secret deep state government organization, like being in the CIA. They’re going to send rewrites over to Prague on this dark red paper that gives you a headache to read.”
That dark red paper was apparently Abrams’ idea, with the color said to make photocopying practically impossible. Nonetheless, Hamill recalls how he was at least allowed to keep the pages for Luke’s previous screen outing:
“They wound up letting me keep a script when we were doing [The Last Jedi], but I had to lock it up in a safe every night and then carry it with me and never let it out of my sight. And I can understand why — if [a script] gets out it ruins it for everyone.”
For this next film, however, they’re taking no chances, with Hamill claiming that the studio won’t even leave him alone with the script for one night:
“They’re going to fly [the rewrites] over with somebody from the company. They’re going to come and give it to me and wait for me to read it before I give it back. So no pressure! You can’t even keep it overnight. But that’s the way it is now.”
When the script is monitored this closely, it’s no wonder that the cast is sounding so paranoid about accidentally dropping details.
Speaking of which, Hamill’s claim in this same interview that he “still [has] to go over and do” Episode IX has already been interpreted by some fans as a hint that Luke will have limited screen time in what could well be his final film, since it sounds like the actor will only just be heading to the set more than halfway through production.
If so, then that makes these spoiler security tactics seem all the more excessive, but we’ll find out if Star Wars: Episode IX has any secrets worth hiding when the film hits theaters on December 20th, 2019.