Mark Hamill’s Jack in the Box announcement: the actor returns to the Rep fast food chain

Before Mark Hamill wowed audiences as Luke Skywalker in “Star Wars,” the then-up-and-coming actor was pitching burgers for another Empire: fast-food chain Jack in the Box.

At 18, Hamill, a student at Los Angeles City College, worked at the drive-thru of Jack in the Box, where he practiced impersonations.

“I had worked at another fast food joint when I was about 16, so I knew the routine,” Hamill told Insider. “I’ve done shakes, I’ve worked the grill, but I’ve always aspired to work that take-out window.”

And the window was the perfect stage to hone his acting skills: “I thought you should talk like a clown, so I did,” Hamill recalls. “I thought it was fun – my boss thought it was boring.”

So boring, in fact, that impersonations got Hamill fired.

“My boss told me to quit, which I did,” Hamill said. “But at the end of the workday he said, ‘You know what Mark, if you can’t take this job seriously, maybe it’s not for you. In other words, go away and never come back.

Now, more than 50 years later, Hamill returns to the drive-thru window in a new advert for the fast-food chain – also marking the return of Jack in the Box spicy chicken strips and French toast sticks.

“The funny thing is we’re bringing them back for a limited time, we’re also bringing Mark Hamill back for a limited time!” Hamill joked.

The ad includes a slide that reads, “Mark Hamill was once fired from a Jack in the Box for impersonating a clown in the drive-thru. Today he is back.

And publicity took more than three years (well, more than half a century) to prepare. Hamill first publicly revealed his turn as Jack in the Box’s sidekick on “The Late Late Show with James Corden” in 2019.

Register: Stay up to date with the latest film and TV news! Sign up for our email newsletters here.