The recently released first trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens was emotional for Mark Hamill.

Yes, he "loved" what he saw, but…

"Best of all, even more than the trailer, I liked watching videos of people watching the trailer," Hamill told me earlier today while promoting his latest project, Elf: Buddy's Musical Christmas, the new animated adaptation of the Elf movie and Broadway musicial (premiering on Dec. 16 at 8 p.m. on NBC). "You know you sort of get isolated and you forget that to a certain segment of the population that this is very special to them and they love it at a level that most people don't understand. That was moving to me. I got choked up seeing how happy it made people."

As we know, Hamill reprises his role as Luke Skywalker in the first installment of the new trilogy. Harrison Ford is back as Han Solo and of course, Carrie Fisher returning as Princess Leia.