Harrison Ford probably isn't above a few million dollars for playing Han Solo again

Last week's biggest entertainment news, Disney acquiring Lucasfilm for just over four billion dollars, was almost immediately followed by the news that Star Wars: Episode VII might now be in the works. While rumors fly on that, here's another one to add to the mix: possible returning cast members. No, not Hayden Christensen, as excited as I know everyone would be about that! Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford have all said that they're "open" to the idea for reprising their roles from the original trilogy, according to Entertainment Weekly. That's far from a confirmation of anything, but in an interview with a source close to Ford, who has remained decidedly unenthused about the entire franchise since Return of the Jedi, the 70-year-old actor might just be go for launch.

One factor in such a decision -- besides the gigantic paycheck and never having to work ever again -- is that George Lucas will soon be stepping aside and retiring from running Lucasfilm and will yield power to Kathleen Kennedy. That leaves a bit more creative freedom, and the right director might just be the right man or woman to woo Ford back into the cast. It's pretty exciting just knowing that Ford is "upbeat" about such a project, and it's certainly red meat for Star Wars fans who were let down by the most recent trilogy. But as it's been pointed out repeatedly, all that exists right now are rumors. Set your speculatrons to "stun." Hehe -- little Star Trek joke. For the Star Wars post.

Photo credit: Wikipedia

(via Flavorwire)

• [agonist]

  …and Shia LaBeouf can play his son. Ya, no. Let’s remember Han as he was and not go there.

  • [Jorpho]

    Indeed, after Crystal Skull, can one really say there’s something Mr. Ford will not do?

    I suggest looking up his Tonight Show interview from 2010.  It is quite something.

• [tristan eldritch]

  The idea of another trilogy of Stars Wars films is utterly depressing.  It’s the crass epitome of Hollywood’s current ethos of squeezing as many dollar bills out of a recognizable brand as is humanly possible, despite the sheer absence of any legitimate artistic incentive to revisit these mouldering horses.

  • [Nash Rambler]

    Tristan, I’m not disagreeing with you but. . .it’s Hollywood.  That’s what they do, man.  I can’t chide them for this attitude when I was among the throng to press my dollar bills into their hands when LotR was out, or Harry Potter, or Iron Man/Cap America/Avengers, et cetra.

    I don’t expect them NOT to squeeze as many dollar bills out of a recognizable brand – I’m hopeful that the press constructed to extract said dollars is a wonderful and skillful thing.

  • [Marc Mielke]

    As cravenly commercial as Disney’s movies are likely to be, making them suck worse than Lucas’ prequels would actually be harder and take more work than making something good. 

    • [Petzl]

      At first I was depressed, but then I came to the same conclusion.  No Disney exploitation could approach the base level to which Lucas drove his franchise.  Whatever Disney makes of Episodes VII, VIII, and IX, let’s see how quickly they crowd I, II, and III out of the canon.

  • [Matthew Fabb]

    Two things.

    One this was the original plan the George Lucas had in the late 70′s & early 80′s when he seemed to be more on the artist rather than commercial side.

    The other thing is that it is being reported many places that George Lucas plans on taking the $4.05 billion he made from selling LucasFilm and donating the majority of it to charities, particularly educational charities. :)

  • [Petzl]

    What you call “crass epitome of Hollywood’s current ethos of squeezing as many dollar bills out of a recognizable brand as is humanly possible,” we call “monetization.”

• [Tom Sean Kelleher]

  Stormtroopers stunned Princess Leia, someone’s been skippng their Trilogy Time …

  • [acerplatanoides]

    Had to check Wookiepedia: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Stun

• [Nash Rambler]

  “Hehe — little Star Trek joke. For the Star Wars post.”

  Oh, we got it.  It just wasn’t funny.  *looks on contemptuously as liquid carbonite pours over Jamie*

• [anansi133]

  I know I’m supposed to be full of fan-boy squee at this turn of events. And I’ll probably drag myself to a theater to watch what they do, with the same kind of enthusiasm as I had for the presidential vote I just cast.

  wake me when it’s over. 

  • [mccrum]

    If you saw Episode I in theatres, it’s okay if you used up all your squee there.  I certainly did.  I’m all out.

    • [Spieguh]

       Yeah, Episode 1 gave my squee a terminal disease. Episode 2 took it out back and shot it. I didn’t even watch Episode 3 until a few years ago, and that put the urn on the mantle and then burned the house down.

• [franko]

  this combined with the interview he did back in… 2010?… where he said that he tried to persuade lucas to kill off han at the end of Jedi makes me wonder if he’ll do it only if he is assured his character dies at some point. considering the new trilogy is supposed to focus on their children, i actually wouldn’t mind seeing that, sad as it would be.

• [corey]

  Sadly the only way I can imagine Luke, Leah, and Han for the new sequels is all crammed in Yoda’s old dirty Degobah hut. All wearing brown dirty robes, eating snake soup, and with missing teeth, bickering  while the droids are rusting outside in the rain.

  • [Antinous / Moderator]

    Carrie Fisher now looks like I would expect Princess Leia to look now. Mark Hamill looks like Meatloaf.

    • [corey]

      DV: join me and together we will rule the galaxy as father and son
      LS: let me sleep on it, baby baby, let me sleep on it…
      let me sleep on it, and leme give you an answer in the mornin’!

• [Oliver]

  Let’s do a nitty gritty Thrawn Trilogy where the geriatrics just have some cameos as oh-look-there’s-senator-leia and it might work out.

  But this will never happen I guess

  • [Bobsyeruncle]

    Personally, I think the geriatrics would be a lot more fun then whatever Hollywood picks as their younger, “hipper” replacements.  So what if Princess Leia has put on more than a pounds?  As a love interest, she might be embarrassing, but she could still breathe a lot more fun and charm into her character than her Family Channel-bred substitute.

• [niktemadur]

  Since Irvin Keshner sadly passed away a couple of years ago, give the new trilogy to Christopher Nolan, ditch the green-screen/CGI, and we’re 3/4 of the way towards an epic course correction.  One can dream.