Harrison Ford Talks About His Return to 'Star Wars' in 'The Force Awakens'

By: Dominic Jones

Harrison Ford reminisced about his return to Star Wars in 2015's The Force Awakens, which brought back Han Solo to help kickstart the adventures of the next generation of Star Wars heroes, in a recent interview with GQ.  Ford spoke with GQ about how he found out about the new films, and why he was interested in returning,

Via GQ,

Ford's least expected late-career reprise was his return to the world of Star Wars. “I was surprised,” he concedes. The first call came from George Lucas. “It was proposed that I might make another appearance as Han Solo. And I think it was mentioned, even in the first call, that he would not survive. That's something I'd been arguing for for some period of time”—Ford had unsuccessfully lobbied for Solo to die in Return of the Jedi in 1983—“so I said okay.”

Was that a necessity for you to be involved?

“Not necessarily. But it was, you know, an interesting development of the character.”
 

He also addressed whether or not he would be interested in returning to Star Wars (despite, well, you know).  Via GQ,

When it comes to 'Star Wars', given the nature of science fiction, are you absolutely, incontrovertibly—

 
“Dead?”

—finished with ‘Star Wars'?

“Um, I mean, I'm finished with Star Wars if Star Wars is finished with me.”

And if 'Star Wars' isn't finished with you?

“I can't imagine it. But it is science fiction.”

He pauses and considers what he has just said, maybe realizing that he is leaving the door a little further ajar than he means to.

“I'd rather not,” he concludes. “You know, at this point I'd rather do something else. Just because it's more interesting to do something new.”

It's interesting (although not all that surprising) that the idea of Han dying goes all the way back George Lucas' original treatments for Episode VII.  We know that Lucas had "the big 3" on board to come back for the film before he ever sold Lucasfilm to Disney.  Obviously, the way it played out in Abrams' film might not have been the way Lucas envisioned it, but it does give us a little more insight into what Lucas' original plan for the sequel trilogy--Han was always a dead man walking in Episode VII.

Source: GQ

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