Star Wars Actors Are Back: Hamill, Ford, Fisher Semi-Confirmed By George Lucas

Speculation was rife just hours after the announcement that more Star Wars films were coming, and now it’s confirmed, sort of. Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher (Han Solo, Luke Skywalker and Princess Lea – obviously) will reprise their timeless roles.

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“We had already signed Mark and Carrie and Harrison — or we were pretty much in final stages of negotiation,” Lucas explained to Bloomberg, before he realised he may just have said a little too much. “Maybe I’m not supposed to say that,” he said. “I think they want to announce that with some big whoop-de-do, but we were negotiating with them.” He also added that, “I won’t say whether the negotiations were successful or not.” So where are we at then? Apparently the actors hadn’t signed contracts but were “in the stage where they want us to go in and meet with Michael Arndt, who is the writer, and Kathleen Kennedy, who is going to run Lucasfilm.” It sounds pretty nailed on, even if the fat cats aren’t willing to confirm it for legal reasons, but do we really want these ancient actors coming back to the big screen? It’s either going to be a triumphant return on an awful mistake, that’s for sure.

Disney bought Lucasfilm for $4.05bn (£2.7bn) and Episodes VII, VIII and IX are being made over a roughly six-year period. Lucas remains a creative force in the project, even if the financial clout lays elsewhere.