'The Last Jedi' star appeared via video at the Comic-Con panel for 'Brigsby Bear'

Mark Hamill urges Star Wars fans to see his new dark comedy

Star Wars: The Last Jedi doesn’t come out until December, but Mark Hamill has another movie he wants fans of the galaxy far, far away to see first.

Hamill appeared via video during a panel for his next movie, Brigsby Bear, on Thursday at San Diego’s Comic-Con International, and told attendees he’s “never read a script as original” as this film, which opens in theaters next week.

“I want you to do me a favor — if you are a Star Wars fan please go see Brigsby Bear in theaters. It’s a movie for people like us,” Hamill said in the video. “I’ve never read a script as original as this film. You’ll love it, and bring a couple of non-Star Wars fans … And may the Force be with you.”

Thursday’s panel was moderated by EW’s Anthony Breznican, who told the crowd, “You will not find a weirder movie than this one, or one with a bigger heart.” Those in the Hall H audience were shown the first 12 minutes of the film, which centers on a young man named James (Kyle Mooney), who lives in seclusion in a bunker and sees the world through the prism of his one source of entertainment — an ‘80s TV series starring the bear of the film’s title, made just for him. When the show abruptly ends, James sets out to finish the story himself.

Director Dave McCary teased that for James, there’s “that feeling of having your favorite hero and your favorite show and it’s the only thing you know, and all of sudden it’s stripped away from you and it doesn’t exist? … It’s a new world that’s foreign to him and he tries to assimilate to a normal experience.”

Mooney is joined in the film by Hamill (who plays a parental figure to James, along with Jane Adams) and an ensemble cast that includes Claire Danes, Greg Kinnear, Matt Walsh, Andy Samberg, and Michaela Watkins.

“Kyle and Kevin [Costello] wrote a heartwarming and unique script. Every time we sent it out to possible cast members, people would really respond favorably,” said McCary. “It helped having the Lonely Island guys being involved. Mark Hamill watches SNL, but I’m a first time director, Kyle has never led a film — it’s hard to roll the dice.”

Taccone added, “To me, and this is the reason we got involved, it was so inspired and heartfelt and fun and interesting, and on every level, it was like nothing I’d ever read before.”

Mooney and Costello also discussed their long friendship and inspirations for the film (“[It’s] a lot about a collaborative experience with a best friend — it mirrors what we grew up with in San Diego”), and its message about the need for people to connect.

“I was awkward; pop culture was the only way I could talk about anything or knew how to feel safe and have my own little world, having a passion and looking for a connection,” Costello told the crowd. “We wanted, in an abstraction, how powerful that yearning would be — what happens after is wanting to connect.”

“I think from the basic perspective, it’s about connection — it’s a friend that you don’t have, it’s the thing that makes you happy,” Mooney explained. “For me, and for a lot of you, we’re nostalgic to what we watched growing up. There’s a bond that forms between you and what you love.”