KUALA LUMPUR: American actor Mark Hamill, best known for playing Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars film series, has finally "landed" in Malaysia, at least on social media.
And it was all by accident.
Recently, the 68-year-old Hamill who most recently appeared in The Rise Of Skywalker accidentally gained a load of Malaysian followers for tweeting a Jalur Gemilang emoji instead of a Stars And Stripes one.
In his tweet, Hamill lambasted Facebook chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg for his decision to allow political advertisements on the social media network.
"So disappointed that #MarkZuckerberg values profit more than truthfulness that I've decided to delete my Facebook account. I know this is a big 'Who Cares?' for the world at large, but I'll sleep better at night," tweeted Hamill.
He included two emojis to indicate that the United States was greater than money, but instead of the US flag, he used the Malaysian flag.
Both flags share almost similar red and white horizontal stripes (14 for Malaysia and 13 for the US) and a royal blue canton in the top left.
And since emojis are tiny, the two flags are often indistinguishable to American Netizens.
Hamill quickly made a correction, but his earlier tweet went viral and attracted the attention of Malaysian Netizens.
They thanked him and encouraged him to pay them a visit someday.
"Now that we all have had a good laugh at my expense for mistaking a teeny, tiny flag of Malaysia for a teeny, tiny Old Glory, the fact remains the same. No country measures their worth in money (I accidentally blundered into a load of Malaysian followers)," tweeted Hamill.
A Malaysian identified as Wayang tweeted: "Big love from Malaysia, from a big fan of yours since 1977!"
"Malaysia is paradise. You couldn't have picked a more beautiful place with nicer people to accidentally post a flag from. Nicest accidental friends you'll ever make," tweeted Gary.
"Both countries started with 13 original colonies or member states, both have a federal system of government, both have multi-cultural societies, and these colours don't run. Welcome Mark Hamill," tweeted Zayn.
Best of all, Malek tweeted that a small town in his home state Sarawak was called Padawan, a term used in the Star Wars universe for Jedi apprentices.
"There’s a place in Sarawak, Malaysia called Padawan. But so far I haven't found any Jedis there," he tweeted.
Hamill has played Star Wars' Jedi knight protagonist Luke Skywalker in six movies namely A New Hope (1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Return Of The Jedi (1983), The Force Awakens (2015), The Last Jedi (2017) and The Rise Of Skywalker (2019).
He has won the Saturn Award for Best Actor thrice for his role as Skywalker.