This is who Disney will reportedly cast as the new Luke Skywalker

Luke Skywalker is dead; we saw him die in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Disney’s first trilogy brought us a new generation of Star Wars heroes meant to replace the original trio. The changing of the guard was inevitable. Disney plans to create additional Star Wars projects, and the original actors are getting too old for these roles. Plus, Carrie Fisher sadly passed away before having a chance to shoot scenes for The Rise of Skywalker.

Disney brought back Luke Skywalker in the finale of The Mandalorian season 2, offering fans a massive surprise. That was an indication that Disney still wants to milk legacy Star Wars characters, especially considering its ambitious Star Wars plans for Disney+. Mark Hamill was de-aged for the finale, and Disney could use similar CGI effects for future cameos. The alternative is to recast Luke Skywalker with a younger actor. A new rumor says that Disney is about to do just that. The actor who will supposedly replace Hamill already plays a beloved character in a different Disney property, and he was previously fan-casted as Luke as well.

Insider Mikey Sutton, who usually posts details about unannounced Marvel plans for the MCU, claims that Disney is looking at recasting Luke Skywalker for future projects. Sebastian Stan, who has been playing Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier in various Marvel films and will star in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier series that premieres next week, is supposedly in the running to play a young Luke in future projects made for Disney+.

According to Sutton, there have been discussions at Disney to film some of the adventures in the three decades between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens as Disney+ shows. Producers will supposedly “cherry-pick” from non-canon and canon content that covers that particular Star Wars timeline.

Sutton said he learned in December that Stan was courted to play Luke in the upcoming Lando show. There’s also been talk about having the character appear in multiple projects. Disney announced 12 Star Wars projects in mid-December. It’s unclear which ones would feature Luke cameos. Negotiations have not started, but Sutton claims that Stan is Lucasfilm’s top choice.

Should this rumor come true, Disney will have to find ways to share Stan between Star Wars and the MCU. That’s assuming the Winter Soldier will continue to appear in future Marvel movies.

While some fans might be sad to see Hamill replaced, others might appreciate the change. Stan was fan-casted before as a young Skywalker, and it might be a lot easier for Disney to use a more youthful actor than to keep de-aging Hamill for Disney+ cameos. The technology for these special effects exists and can be quite impressive. But it’s also expensive, and the results might not be perfect. Here’s what Luke looked like in The Mandalorian finale: