*Nods*
There was an expectation after ESB that Star Wars was going to go on long enough for the actors to grow old in their parts. Weird Al referenced this in his Yoda song.
Starlog magazine even made jokes about their early 21st century incarnation that would come on a computer disk, and feature an interview with an aged Mark Hamill in his Jedi Master costume on the set of the latest episode. They couldn't predict their own demise, alas.