George Lucas, from his awkward (though richly-furnished) office as the new ‘creative consultant’ on the Star Wars series (which, of course, he founded, raised to greatness… and then tarnished), recently confirmed, maybe accidentally, that Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford will, after 30+ years, be reprising their roles in the next mainline Star Wars film.
Business Week, in conversation with Lucas, reports:
Asked whether members of the original Star Wars cast will appear in Episode VII and if he called them before the deal closed to keep them informed, Lucas says, “We had already signed Mark and Carrie and Harrison-or we were pretty much in final stages of negotiation. So I called them to say, ‘Look, this is what’s going on.’ ” He pauses. “Maybe I’m not supposed to say that. I think they want to announce that with some big whoop-de-do, but we were negotiating with them.” Then he adds: “I won’t say whether the negotiations were successful or not.”
Can anyone familiar with the Star Wars Expanded Universe stuff posit what timeframe and in what capacity Luke, Leia and Han might appear? Harrison Ford is 70 now, so it won’t be a spry, planet-hopping Han, surely. My grandfather-in-law is about 75. Man. Weird.
Troy Denning’s book Crucible (July 2013) is set in 45 ABY; Han was born in 29 BBY. So he’s about the same as Harrison Ford.
I think they’re going to cherry-pick elements from the EU to use and will discard most of the rest. 30 years after the end of RotJ (which it will be this May) is right at the end of the Yuuzhan Vong War in the New Jedi Order books, but I think the chances of that being referenced are unlikely.
So glad they are bringing back the original cast. Strangely enough Hamil is the one I look forward to see reprising his role the most even though Han Solo was such a Fan Favorite…
I don’t know what to think of this whole new star wars trilogy thing. I mean, yes I’m super excited as a fan, but i really don’t know about jj abrahams as a director. He did a good job of putting new life into star trek, but kind of changed the whole dynamic. Plus I’m not looking forward to a star wars movie with lens flares blinding me every time a light saber comes up. I mean coruscant by night in a JJ abraham by night will be an absolute nightmare hahaha.
as far as I’m concerned about seeing the original cast, that would be really cool. Although I don’t know which trilogy they can use them for at their age.