When I was little, Mark Hamill made me want to be Luke Skywalker when I grew up.

For that matter, Mark Hamill still makes me want to be Luke Skywalker when I grow up.

What many Star Wars fans might not realize is that Mark provided the voice of The Joker for the massively awesome Batman cartoons and animated movies of the 1990s and beyond, including Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker which, in its unrated form, was the most sickeningly terrifying depiction of The Joker ever to appear in a filmed medium until the trailer for The Dark Knight came along.

Mark’s Joker was all power and insanity dripping with clever intelligence, and for many Batman fans he’s far more definitive a Joker than even Jack Nicholson.

MTV recently spoke to Mark about his take on Heath Ledger’s Joker …

… and what he said went a little something like this:

“For all those fans that dreamed of an adult approach to the material, ‘Batman Begins’ got nearly everything right,” Mark Hamill wrote to MTV News upon first seeing the trailer for Chris Nolan’s “The Dark Knight.” “I have no doubt this one will be just as good or better.”

Hamill, of course, is often credited with helping to craft the most definitive take on the character yet, in Dini’s “Batman: The Animated Series.” As voice of the Joker, Hamill brought to the Gotham knave a delicate mix of psychosis and manic glee, just as ready with a gun as he was with a gag.

Hamill, like Dini, sees very little of that approach in Nolan’s take on the character — but what he does see has him smiling from ear to ear.

“The balls-out debauched psycho approach seems like a great way of reinventing everyone’s favorite scary (and scar-y) clown,” he enthused. “Can’t wait to see it!”

Yes!

And may the Force be with you, good sir.