Mark Hamill reveals atSan Diego Comic-Con 2025that one of his co-stars onThe Long Walkdidn’t want to meet him at first, but the young actor had a good reason for it. Hamill is back playing a pivotal role in another Stephen King movie with hisvillainous portrayal of The Majorin Lionsgate’s upcoming survival thriller that adapts the author’s 1979 book.
Before becoming part of multiple Stephen King movie productions, whichstarted withThe Life of Chuckearlier this year, Hamill already had a legendary career filled with playing Luke Skywalker forStar Warsacross decades and becoming synonymous with the voice of Joker in animated DC projects. He’s practically universally beloved in Hollywood and by audiences for that reason, so just about anyone would love to meet him.
Yet, Hamill has now shared a funny story about one of his new co-stars, Cooper Hoffman, not wanting to meet him initially. Lionsgate held a panel forThe Long Walkin Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con 2025, which Screen Rant’s Brandon Zachary attended. During the panel, which also included anewThe Long Walktrailer, Hamill shared that he wanted to meet his new co-star for breakfast before filming began, butHoffman turned down the offer out of fear he’d like Hamill too much.
According to Hamill, Hoffman was worried that meeting and liking the actor so much would change how he’d approachThe Long Walk.Hoffman plays the movie’s lead, Raymond Garraty, putting him in direct opposition to Hamill’s Major. Hamill says he understood Hoffman’s reasoning, canceled the breakfast, and then told his agent that when they did meet,“Cooper WILL like me.”
What This Means For The Long Walk
Ray & Major’s Dynamic Should Be Accurate
Hoffman’s refusal to meet Hamill beforeThe Long Walkbegan speaks to how seriously he approached this new role. He clearly did not want to have any reason why his performance would convey anything other than hate toward the Major.
InThe Long Walk,the Major is responsible for enforcing the rules that Ray and the other teenage boys must followas the walking competition continues. This leads to the walkers having an increasing amount of disdain toward him in the story, especially as the full length of the Major’s influence and control is revealed.
While Hoffman and Hamill did meet throughout filming, it’s unclear how much one-on-one time they had off-screen that could impact how either of them approaches Ray and the Major’s dynamic. At the very least, we now know that Hoffman did everything he could to make sure he could convincingly hate Hamill’s character without too much of the actor’s real-world persona influencing him.
Our Take On Hamill’s The Long Walk Story
His Interactions With Hoffman Can’t Be Missed Now
Even though we didn’t get Hoffman’s side of this story throughThe Long Walk’s SDCC 2025 panel, the reasoning for not wanting to meet Hamill ahead of time is commendable. He must be a huge fan of Hamill from afar (who isn’t?), but that distance can still allow him to separate Hamill from the Major. Meeting him may have blurred the lines a bit more.
It’s impressive to me that Hoffman would take this approach, and it probably was a difficult choice to make. But, the early looks atThe Long Walkare promising and make Hamill’s Major someone who should be easy to hate. Seeing how Hoffman and Hamill’s interactions go on-screen is now something that I’m particularly excited to see when the movie comes out in two months.
