The Star Wars films have been in the “Oooh, secret cameo!” business for a while now, a natural consequence of an entire generation growing up in the shadow of one of the planet’s biggest sci-fi franchises, and wanting to get in on the fun. Still, there’s a pretty hefty difference between “the rich guys whose grandma rules England get to be stormtroopers” and an appearance from actual royalty, one made clear by a recent revelation that Mark Hamill—the king of Star Wars himself!—appeared in a clandestine fashion in Disney+’s The Mandalorian.
This is per Deadline, reporting on a tidbit that cropped up in the most recent episode of the Disney Gallery behind-the-scenes series about the show. Said episode—which is all about how Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, and the rest of the show’s staff filled the space Western with pretty much every background character, one-off alien, and Ewoks: The Battle For Endor refugee they could get their hands on—includes the revelation almost off-handedly, but it turns out that Hamill shows up to voice two whole lines of dialogue in the show’s fifth episode. (A.k.a., “The One Where Amy Sedaris Shows Up To Do Amy Sedaris Things.”)
Specifically, Hamill played droid bartender EV-9D9, who used to have a gig torturing other droids on behalf of Jabba the Hutt. (Return Of The Jedi director Richard Marquand reportedly voiced the character in its first appearance.) Re-listening to the moment from The Mandalorian, you can be excused for not noticing who’s saying the lines, though; Hamill’s distinctive cadences are hidden pretty heavily behind the digital droid voice effect, and there’s none of the flair associated with so many of his more high-profile voice actor performances.