Although he stressed that he hasn't signed a Star Wars deal yet, Mark Hamill is trying to cast, shoot, and wrap a movie version of his comic book, The Black Pearl, before production starts on the new Star Wars film.
"We want to do it before we have to go away," he said, then added, "If we have to go away. If we come to an agreement about George's movie. Or I should say Disney's movie."
"The only news I know I can say because I read it on the internet," he said, "is that we are going back to England. When they do them, they'll be in England."
Hamill, who's had a successful career in voice-over work, said he was reluctant to "emerge from [his] hidey-hole" for a high-profile guest star role on the Season 8 finale of Criminal Minds; however, despite being comfortable in his somewhat anonymous niche, he is ready for Star Wars.
"The more adventurous side of me thinks, 'Oh, shoot, if they're gonna really do this and everybody's in, I'm almost obligated to do it,'" he said. "Even though I never expected to be at it 30 years later."
"George told us last summer what was going down, that he was selling — he didn't say he was selling to Disney. That I read on the internet the day before Halloween. On October 30 of last year, I went, 'What?!'"
He was referring to Kathleen Kennedy's appointment as co-chair of Lucasfilm Ltd., the studio behind Star Wars, and the subsequent sale of the studio to Disney.
Hamill, who was cast on Criminal Minds in part because he's recognizable worldwide, said, "Animation was a revelation to me. I said, 'Where has this been all my life?' I'm too young to have been a radio actor, but not since the days of radio are you [so] liberated to play characters."
He is a little apprehensive about the new movies.
"It's a question of finding something that will make everyone happy, which is never easy," he said. "Sometimes you have to stay off the comments section [online] because you don't want to know how many haters are out there. It's not like the old days...[to see your words in print] in the old days, you had to write letters to the editor of your newspaper and hope they got printed, or really dedicate yourself to journalism."
Part of emerging from his hidey-hole involved live-tweeting the Criminal Minds finale at the behest of CBS. He said his daughter, Chelsea Hamill, 24, was his "tech support."
"Another twist of new media that was unheard-of, even a few years ago. I said, 'I need some technical assistance there,'" he said.