Having “Star Wars” actor Mark Hamill join the cast of “The Flash” for this week’s episode was a thrill for the cast.
“That was really surreal,” Grant Gustin (Barry Allen/The Flash) told Access Hollywood recently about having Hamill come on the show as the incarcerated Trickster.
In this Tuesday’s episode, Hamill lays James Jesse, aka The Trickster, who is prison (coincidentally the same one housing Barry’s dad, Henry Allen). A copycat, who uses James’ old moniker, causes trouble in Central City, prompting Barry and Det. Joe West (Jesse L. Martin) to go to Hamill’s character for help.
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“When this version came on, my daughter Chelsea’s a big fan and I watched it from the very first episode,” Hamill told reporters at a recent screening of the episode, when Access Hollywood asked him about appearing on The CW’s “The Flash. “In fact, I even thought, since they were doing… Weather Wizard and various other Rogues Gallery characters, ‘I wonder if they’re going to do the Trickster.'”
But, when Hamill got the call, he wasn’t expecting to be offered a role playing a new version of his former ’90s “The Flash” Trickster.
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“I got a call from my business people saying, ‘They want you to do something on ‘The Flash,” and I was thinking, you know, like a colleague of John Wesley Shipp’s, a professor, something age appropriate. I’m not getting back into that one piece jumpsuit, the spandex deal, so I said, ‘Well, who do they want me to play?'” the actor recounted. “When they said, ‘The Trickster,’ I just couldn’t believe it.”
Hamill called Executive Producer Andrew Kreisberg for more details. And, the story arc “The Flash” writers plotted out delighted the actor — playing the imprisoned Trickster, who becomes outraged when he finds out a young upstart has stolen his moniker.
“All these villains have unwieldy egos, and it worked, I mean, when I read the script I said, ‘Who’s this punk getting all my stuff?’ I reacted just like I was in character because he really gets to do all the fun Trickster-y things with the parachute bombs and what not,” Hamill said of Devon Graye’s new imposter Trickster.
Devon Graye as Trickster, John Wesley Shipp as Henry Allen, and Mark Hamill as James Jesse in ‘The Flash’ (The CW)
Gustin told Access Hamill really embraced the new version of his old role.
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“He was just so nice and he got really into his character and did like a lot of work on it and he’s really good,” Gustin said. “Jesse had a lightsaber toy — Jesse Martin has carried around a lightsaber toy for the first half of the season, and Mark signed it for him and said, ‘Your friend Mark. May the force be with you.’ He’s just like, the nicest guy.”
“The Flash” with Mark Hamill airs Tuesday at 8/7c on The CW.
— Jolie Lash
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