Rumor: Harrison Ford To Reprise Han Solo In Star Wars Episode VII
It’s only a rumor right now, but it’s got a lot of people talking:
Star Wars fans had a lot of questions when it was first announced that Disney was set to purchase Lucasfilm – with the intention of producing an entirely new trilogy in a Galaxy Far, Far Away. However, one of the biggest questions surrounding the future of Star Wars is where the story would go in Episodes 7-9. Would the new films continue the narrative established in the original six installments and bring back fan-favorite actors (now 30 years older) to reprise their characters or would Lucasfilm clean the slate and center the trilogy around entirely new faces?
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Now that director J.J. Abrams is officially helming Episode 7, Star Wars-related rumors and reports are at an all-time high. Joining the chorus of unconfirmed reports on the production, Latino Review took to the Fox News Latino airwaves and announced that, according to their sources, Harrison Ford has officially signed-on for a “significant” appearance as Han Solo in Episode 7. Not entirely a big surprise, given that Ford has previously stated he’d be open to returning - if the story would allow for it. When pressed for further information, Latino Review admitted that there scoop was limited to the signing of Han Solo and anything beyond the casting itself would purely be speculation at this point. Latino Review has a relatively successful record with their scoops – so there’s more than enough reason to believe that there’s at least some truth to the report.
It wouldn’t be entirely surprising to see some, if not all, of the core actors from the classic trilogy returning for at least the first in what apparently Disney plans on being a long series of movies. Ford, of course, is really the only one of them with any real recent acting experience. Outside of cartoon voice-overs or commercials I can’t recall seeing Mark Hamill or Carrie Fisher appearing in anything in years, which suggests that they’d jump at the chance if offered an appearance no matter how limited it might be.
WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT
Curiously enough, Han Solo was the only major character who did not appear or was prefigured in the Star Wars prequels. We saw young Anakin, Obi-Wan, Yoda, C-3PO, R2D2, baby Luke, baby Leia, even a younger Chewbacca — but absolutely no mention of or foreshadowing of Han. Which, considering what a mess those movies were, was probably a good thing for the character.
@Rafer Janders:
Han was, most likely, about the same age as Luke and Leia at the end of Return of the Jedi, maybe a bit older but still most likely a child. So it’s not like there was much opportunity to logically fit him into the plot.
@Jeremy:
There’s going to have to be some tie between the original trilogy and the new movie(s). Including some of the original characters, especially Luke, Leia, and Han, make sense. Given the age of the actors, they couldn’t be the main characters so much as an older generation watching over the new one.
Well, Ford added so much value to the last Indiana Jones movie…what could go wrong?
@Doug Mataconis: There wasn’t much opportunity to logically fit R2D2, C3P0, or Chewbacca in either. Didn’t stop them.
R2-D2, C3P0 and Chewbacca didn’t really fit logically in the trilogy either 🙂
@Doug Mataconis:
Hey, C3PO, R2D2, and Baby Boba Fett didn’t fit logically into the plot, but that didn’t stop George Lucas from writing them in. Believe me, “internal story logic and consistency” is never the reason why Lucas did or didn’t do something in the script.
(I mean, really, C3PO was built by Darth Vader? On Tatooine? When he was eight years old? And then C3PO had his memory wiped so he had no memory of ever having met Obi-Wan or Luke or Leia or….oh, forget it).
Star Wars VII’s plot will involve Han Solo, played by Ford, time traveling into the past to team up with his younger self, played by Nathan Fillion, to hunt down the entire prequel cast, making an alternate timeline where none of the prequels actually occured.
@Stormy Dragon:
I would not object to that
@Stormy Dragon:
Nathan Fillion is part of Joss Whedon’s stable, not J. J. Abrams’. Maybe a buffed-up Michael Emerson instead?
@de stijl:
Whedon and Abrams are both under contract to Disney though, so I’m picturing Abrams directs, Whedon writes in this fantasy.
Carrie Fisher’s actually done a bunch of bit parts over the years. Mark Hamill – no.
Mark Hamill has retired as The Joker, so he should have some free time. Although I have more desire for him to be The Joker forever than for him to reappear in Star Wars.
For the record, Mark Hamill’s Joker is phenomenal. Set aside The Dark Knight and Heath Ledger– to say Hamill set the high bar for Joker would be an understatement. I may actually love him voicing Joker even more than I love him as Luke, and I don’t say that lightly. That’s just how goddamn good he is.
John DiMaggio did a good job voicing Joker in Under the Red Hood, but to me Hamill’s absence as Joker is every bit as glaring as when Kevin Conroy isn’t voicing Batman.
Anyway, my point is, don’t anyone dare dismiss Hamill’s acting chops over the years. I will fight you!
Will an aging Han Solo require an Imperial Walker to get around?
@labman57: (groan)
Yeah Hamill has been busy over the years mostly with voice acting.
Could be an interesting character study on aging and seeing the world (galaxy) moving steadily away from you even if you feel you’re still engaged. Of course I’m a geezer so who cares?
Ooooo…. maybe they’ll let Nancy Pelosi play Jar Jar Binks again.