Mark Hamill voices Luke himself, the rest are mostly replacements. The guy who plays Han Solo sounds like a ProZD character.
Very cozy and you get tons of “slice of life” Mark Hamill being a naïve teenage Luke goofing off with his friends. It’s clearly before our favorite Maury moment, so you get a little bit of disconcerting Luke/Leia romance, but she sounds so different you can just pretend she’s an entirely different person.
Also - this was produced by NPR. Fucking awesome, we need to throw more money at them.
No joke, these three radio dramas are some of my favorite Star Wars media out there and they have been since I discovered them. I love pretty much everything that comes out, but the OT holds a very special place in my heart and these feel like extended cuts of those movies in a way. ANH is my favorite just because there’s SO MUCH added context/story, but the other two are fantastic as well. Seeing bits and pieces from George’s original ideas/earlier versions of the film scripts is one of my favorite things about them. I shout my love for these productions from the rooftops basically every chance I get.
I saw a panel at Celebration… Chicago I think? that was kind of an oral history of these put on by two college professors. One of the best fan panels I’ve ever seen.
Also ESB gives us John Lithgow as Yoda? Incredible.