Star Wars actor and perennial jokester Mark Hamill has quipped that a recently discovered fossil is, in fact, the hand of a Rancor. Hamill, well known for his sense of humor, first rose to fame when he was cast as Luke Skywalker in the original Star Wars trilogy, a role he recently reprised for the sequel trilogy which began with 2015’s The Force Awakens. Hamill, who has an intimate knowledge of the fictional Star Wars beasts known as Rancors, should probably know better than anyone what they look like as his character was nearly devoured by one in Return of the Jedi.
In the Star Wars universe, Rancors are large carnivorous animals native to the planet of Dathomir, home of the Night Sisters and the Sith Lord Darth Maul. They were first introduced into Star Wars lore in 1983’s Return of the Jedi, as the crime lord Jabba the Hutt kept one as a pet beneath a trapdoor in his palace, and he was often fond of dropping unwitting victims into its pit to be eaten. When Hamill’s Luke Skywalker suffered the same treatment, however, the young Jedi managed to slay the beast by dropping a heavy portcullis down on its skull.
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When a recent Tweet displaying the 3,300 year-old claw of the extinct Moa bird hit the web, Mark Hamill was quick to recognize the fossil’s similarities with the fictional beast his character had slain. Sharing the photo, he commented “Excuse me, but I recognize a Rancor’s hand when I see one.” Check out the original Tweet below:
While this Tweet is just one in a long line of Hamill’s tongue-in-cheek quips, it does coincide well with the recent focus on Rancors in the Star Wars universe. In the most recent episode of the animated Star Wars: The Bad Batch, another Rancor with connections to Jabba was featured. When Clone Force 99 was tasked with retrieving a “child” named Muchi from a group of slave traders, they were surprised to learn it was in fact an adolescent female Rancor. Moreover, at the episode’s conclusion the team reunited the beast with none other than Jabba’s right-hand man, Bib Fortuna.
While diehard fans will be quick to point out that Muchi is not the same one that Luke eventually kills in Jabba’s palace, as that one was a male named Pateesa, the connection is still clear. With Mark Hamill’s quick wit bringing people’s attention back to the beast just days before the episode’s release, it has ensured the creature was at the front of fans’ minds. Moving forward, Rancors will no doubt continue to be an important part of the growing Star Wars franchise.
Source: Mark Hamill
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