Ever since J.J. Abrams said, “I DO” to the Disney Star Wars Episode VII movie deal, we’ve had speculation stories left and right. Today we have an unequivocal YES from the lips of Princess Leia herself, but I’ll get to that. Lets break down what Harrison Ford and Mark Hamill are saying as well.
So the official status on Harrison Ford is set at: UNANNOUNCED. But The Latino Review broke the news back in mid February that their insider sources confirmed that he would be back to reprise his role as Han Solo.
Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) is also still in the UNOFFICIAL-HASN’T-SIGNED-ANYTHING category. io9 quoted him as saying the following when asked point-blank about his involvement.
“They’re talking to us. George [Lucas] wanted to know whether we’d be interested. He did say that if we didn’t want to do it, they wouldn’t cast another actor in our parts – they would write us out. … I can tell you right away that we haven’t signed any contracts. We’re 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. Both have had meetings set that were postponed — on their end, not mine. They’re more busy than I am.”
When asked if she would be starring in Star Wars Episode VII by Palm Beach Illustrated, Carrie Fisher replied with a very can’t-be-any-LESS-vague, YES. She said this about how Princess Leia will be in the upcoming movie.
Elderly. She’s in an intergalactic old folks’ home [laughs]. I just think she would be just like she was before, only slower and less inclined to be up for the big battle.
So there you have it. I think it’s safe to assume that they will all be back for small roles and the movie will focus on the next generation, but at least you know that it’s all still very preliminary.
***UPDATED***
Thursday Vulture (not Palm Beach Illustrated) ran a story saying that Carrie Fisher got caught up in the moment and was only kidding when she had said, yes. They went on to say that even George Lucas went too far in an interview, saying that things were in the final stages of negotiations and then quickly tried to back step.
The moral of the story is that even if Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford are involved in Star Wars Episode VII, we’re not going to hear about officially until Disney is ready for us to hear about it. And when they decide to report on it officially. You’ll hear it here.
Star Wars Episode VII is slated to be heading our way in 2015. We’ll keep you posted.
