You’d be forgiven if you don’t rememberMark Hamill’s brief appearance in one ofStephen King’s most critically panned movies, because he doesn’t remember it either. At least, that’s according toThe Long Walkstar, who had much meatier roles in Mike Flanagan’sThe Life of Chuck, and in director Francis Lawrence’s new film that’s set to release in September courtesy of Columbia Pictures.
Speaking withEntertainment Weeklyabout his part inThe Long Walk, the subject of 1992’sSleepwalkerscame up. Directed by Mick Garris, the film has the distinction of being one of the worst King adaptations of all time, due not only to its poor use of CGI, but thanks to its wildly inconsistent tone. It could never decide if it wanted to be a horror movie, a comedy, a drama, or a blend of all three, so instead it just ended up being an awkward experiment in the absurd. It was so bad that Hamill didn’t even remember he was in it:
“I totally forgot. If I remember right, Mick Garris, the director, asked me, ‘Could I do a small role?’ I loved him so much, and I thought, ‘I’ve gotta do it to help him.’ I don’t even know if I got paid, but I totally forgot about it. If there’s not a premiere of a movie, sometimes they’ll slip through, and I don’t see ‘em. I think I eventually saw it, but it was so long ago, I can’t remember much of it.”
Hamill would go on to reiterate that he “doesn’t remember the plot” ofSleepwalkers, nor does he recall who he played. That’s probably for the best, as his role was that of Sheriff Jenkins, a small, uncredited part that we don’t blame him for forgetting.
Focusing on the last two survivors of a vampiric feline shapeshifting species that feed on the lifeforce of human female virgins (yes, really),Sleepwalkersalso starred Brian Krause, Mädchen Amick and Alice Krige, and featured a ton of cameosincluding ones by King himself, Tobe Hooper, Clive Barker, Joe Dante, and John Landis. Taking in a modest $30 million at the box office, it holds just a 29% rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, and a 32% from fans.
Mark Hamill Plays the Villain in ‘The Long Walk’
Nearly 25 years later, Hamill finds himself in another Stephen King movieby way ofThe Long Walk, playing a vastly different role than he did inThe Life of Chuckearlier this year. In the dystopian thriller, he takes on the role of the Major, the hard-nosed leader of the annual walking contest in which 50 boys must trek through the elements at a speed of three miles per hour until just one remains alive.
Based on King’s first-written novel that was later published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman after the success ofCarrie, Hamill says that at the core of the new thriller are the boys who make up the contestants of the annual walking competition: “The real heart and soul of the picture is their experiences in these extraordinary circumstances,” he said, adding:
“Their highs, their lows, their triumphs, their tragedies, the alliances, the rivalries. That’s what the movie’s all about.”
You can catch the highly anticipated new thriller when it opens nationwide on June 27, 2025, and if you really want to subject yourself toSleepwalkers, it’s available to rent or purchase on all VOD platforms.
