Mark Hamillhas confirmedvia his personal Twitter accountthat directorGeorge Lucasoriginally requested a specific Daffy Duck cartoon to play before every screening of the originalStar Warsmovie. The cartoon in question? The iconic space adventure parodyDuck Dodgers in the 24 1/2th Century. According to Hamill and other sources, Lucas made this request as “an icebreaker to let the audience know [that] what was coming was less than dead serious.”
Hamill went on to confirm exactly why Lucas' vision was never made a reality. “I was disappointed when we couldn’t get the rights to it & it didn’t happen #TrueStory” he let his Twitter followers know in the same tweet. Hamill’s tweet was actually a quote tweet of theToon In With Me Twitter account, which is full of fun information about your favorite classic cartoons. The Lucas factoid was an afterthought in a tweet about how theDuck Dodgerscartoon “was ranked number 4 of the 50 greatest cartoons of all time by animation professionals!”
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The tweet Hamill sent out helped clarify rumors which commenters on the original Toon In With Me tweet had already speculated: that the reason the cartoon was not included in the pre-screening ofStar Warswas a licensing rights issue. Other attempts at infusing levity into one of the most famous movie franchises of all time — such as adding comic relief characters like Jar Jar Binks — have been mostly looked at with disapproval from fans in the more recent past. It’s uncertain whether or not the original, die-hardStar Warsfanbase would have taken this cartoon in stride during the movie’s original cinematic release or whether it would have been balked at back then.
The very firstStar Warsmovie,A New Hope, premiered in theaters (without the aforementioned Daffy Duck cartoon) on July 07, 2025, and is currently available to stream on Disney Plus. Check out Hamill’s original tweet below:
