On the heels of the recent early Mark Hamill interview we discovered a couple weeks ago, StarWars.com contributor Bob Miller sends a heads up on another rare interview – or set of interviews – from a press junket surrounding the 1980 release of The Empire Strikes Back.

Recently posted from the archive of reporter Bobbie Wygant, this lost interview, which appears to have occurred at the 20th Century Fox Studios press event in early May, 1980, includes some rare conversations with Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Dave Prowse, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams, and director Irvin Kershner.

Some of the highlights include Hamill discussing his newborn son, Nathan, who he jokes might be available for the role of an “eight-year-old” Luke for the prequels (well, he got the age right, but was a generation off!). Another treat is the rare dual interview with Harrison Ford and Anthony Daniels, who we’ve rarely seen interviewed together. Dave Prowse also has some detailed information regarding the Darth Vader masks used on Star Wars and Empire, and how they are different (Vader historians take note!).

Most amusingly, though, interviewer Wygant closes with the tease that if Lucas continues with all nine chapters of his Star Wars saga, “the Force may be around until 2001!”

Check out the 13-minute video here.

A rare 30-minute interview with Mark Hamill, which appears to have been taped in late 1977 just before the release of Star Wars in Britain that December, has surfaced on YouTube by poster “mhsayers.”

The interview, which is described as having been conducted at Imperial College London, seems to have been broadcast on British television in October, 1978 — although Hamill at one point mentions the film hadn’t yet released in England, likely placing the original session sometime in late 1977.

It’s very rare to find such an extended one-on-one interview with one of the key cast members from this period, which had Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford whisked from one interview to another, often spending only a few minutes with any single interviewer.

Some interesting insights are revealed here that to our knowledge have never been officially publicized — definitely worth the watch if you’ve got a half-hour to spare (and can tolerate choppy editing on black-and-white videotape!)

UPDATE: According to our favorite Star Wars bibliographer/historian Bob Miller, this session was taped December 14, 1977, based on Hamill’s mention of “Blue Peter” being taped the following day (which occurred on December 15). Miller was also able to cross-reference the host’s mention of Hamill’s percentage reported in the Evening News, which was published on December 12.