Mark Hamill managed to keep his latest acting surprise under wraps — even though he was hiding in plain sight.
The “Star Wars” icon has a secret role in Prime Video’s new “Carrie” series, and viewers may have a hard time recognizing him when he appears in the sixth episode. Hamill plays a fortune teller whose act is exposed as a fraud, with the actor transformed through makeup and prosthetics.
In the brief appearance, Hamill sports a mustache and beard and keeps one eye partially closed, helping him disappear into the unusual character.
All About the Role
According to showrunner Mike Flanagan, keeping Hamill’s involvement secret was especially important to the actor himself. Hamill, 75, reportedly wanted to make the cameo without drawing attention to his appearance.
“He was so excited to just come out for half a day,” Flanagan told PEOPLE of how the secret cameo came to be. “His whole thing was just like, ‘Just don’t tell anyone I’m doing that.’ He just wanted to be part of it.”
Flanagan was clearly happy to oblige, particularly because he already had a relationship with the actor. The pair have worked together multiple times, including on Flanagan’s adaptation of Stephen King’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “The Life of Chuck.”
“It was so fun,” Flanagan said of Hamill’s appearance. “To see him just chewing that set and creating this really fun character, it was a blast.”
Their previous collaborations have also turned into a friendship, something Flanagan still finds surprising given Hamill’s status as a longtime Hollywood icon.
“We’ve worked together several times now, and so we saw an opportunity for Mark to come back out to Vancouver. [We made Carrie] with a lot of the same crew he worked with on [The Fall of the House of]Usher.”
Flanagan said his bond with Hamill grew even stronger after working together on “The Life of Chuck,” describing the actor in particularly glowing terms.
“After we did Life of Chuck together, we just had such an amazing time — I just love the man,” Flanagan adds of Hamill. “They say never meet your heroes in this business, and I think he’s the exception to that in so many ways.”
The New Show Is Out
Hamill’s appearance is just one of the ways Flanagan is putting his own spin on King’s famous story. The Prime Video series is described as a “reinvention” of “Carrie,” which was first published as a novel by King in 1974.
Newcomer Summer H. Howell takes on the title role of Carrie White, the troubled high school student whose story has previously been adapted for film and television.
Flanagan knows longtime King fans will have expectations for the series, particularly because “Carrie” has become one of the author’s most recognizable works. Rather than simply recreate earlier versions, however, he wanted the new series to take viewers somewhere unfamiliar.
“We’re very aware of what people were expecting, and as a super fan myself, as a lifelong Stephen King fanatic, it was really important for me that I try to anticipate what their reactions would be, if I was just a fan watching,” Flanagan said.
“This isn’t the Carrie White we’ve seen before. It’s not the Margaret White we’ve seen before. It’s not the prom we’ve seen before. The story takes us [to] a very different place.”
Despite those changes, Flanagan emphasized that the series was made with deep respect for King’s original work.
“But I do hope fans know that it’s done with nothing but love and reverence for what came before, and that we only proceeded with Stephen King’s enthusiastic support on it too, which is something that was critical to me,” he added.
For Hamill, meanwhile, the project offered a chance to step into an unexpected character — and keep fans guessing until he finally appeared on screen.
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Mark Hamill Unrecognizable in New Role