Did the closing episode of The Mandalorian’s second season just give us the final appearance of Mark Hamill’s Luke Skywalker in Star Wars? If so, the return of the original Jedi knight to carry away Baby Yoda to a future under his care, looks like a fitting farewell to the boy from Tatooine who destroyed the evil Empire. Especially as his last hurrah as a force ghost in the appalling The Rise of Skywalker let the side down.

Yet what if this isn’t the end, but rather the beginning? Disney-owned Lucasfilm currently has a problem on its hands, one that Hamill and an army of CGI technicians are more than ready to handle: Star Wars fans can’t wait for the umpteen new TV shows that are due to spin off from The Mandalorian. Efforts based on Obi-Wan Kenobi’s middle years, Boba Fett’s later period and Ahsoka Tano’s post Clone Wars antics are perhaps the most heavily anticipated – but there is very little interest in more Skywalker clan-linked efforts of the kind that fuelled the space opera saga for nine movies after JJ Abrams inadvertently Death Starred the entire franchise last time out.

This is largely a good thing. It was the relentless focus on the big beasts of the original movies that ultimately destroyed the sequel trilogy, specifically the decision to bring back Emperor Palpatine as a laughable zombie version of himself who proceeds to magic up a new Imperial fleet with a flick of his fingers. Strange we never heard of that particular Sith trick before.

On the other hand, Hamill remains relatively unaffected by the abject failure of Rise of Skywalker. Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi, the Star Wars sequel in which Luke had the largest role, will almost certainly go down in posterity as the best film of the trilogy now that Abrams’ earlier The Force Awakens has been so badly tarnished by the director’s subsequent efforts. It explored fascinating and unexpected themes, such as the idea that Skywalker might find failure in his middle years having experienced nothing but relentless victory in his youth.

But even if we don’t want to see those sad events played out in new movies, there are still decades of Luke’s life to explore, and it appears we now have the technology to experience them with the saga’s original actor in situ. IndieWire reports that Hamill was on set to play the digitally de-aged Luke in that final scene where Baby Yoda is passed to his new mentor, though it appears that Max Lloyd-Jones starred as the Jedi knight for the action sequence in which Luke thrillingly destroys a platoon of mechanised dark troopers.

So why not bring Hamill back in a new movie? The Mandalorian has proven beyond doubt that there is ample room in the Star Wars galaxy for new adventures outside the traditional timeline – it operates entirely in the wake of the Rebels’ victory over the Empire in Return of the Jedi, a period before the rise of the First Order that was not previously considered to be fertile territory for the long-running saga. Recasting the role of Luke is one option, but that approach didn’t work out for the middling Solo: A Star Wars Story. Bringing Hamill back, especially given how spot-on the digital de-ageing looked for The Mandalorian, is surely the more palatable option. There might even be room to bring back a de-aged Harrison Ford as Han Solo for some brand new adventures with his old pal.

Disney+ might be the obvious vehicle. But only the multiplex delivers the kind of budget that would allow Lucasfilm to put together the technical team needed for such an ambitious approach, and besides, Disney already has 10 TV shows in the works. Of course, some might say that the studio should leave well alone – that Hamill’s iconic performances in the original trilogy shouldn’t be stained by the possibility of future appearances not hitting the same heights.

But we live in the Covid-era, in which the inability of mankind to do much else but sit in front of the telly most evenings means we demand more content than ever before, and the idea that popular characters and sagas won’t be recycled for the entertainment of the masses is naive. That spaceship has most definitely left the dock – hell, they are even bringing back Hayden Christensen as Darth Vader. The best we can hope for is that new adventures live up to the excellent standard of The Mandalorian, and few would argue that Luke’s return ended up being the highlight of the entire show so far.