Harrison Ford Rumor Fuels Middle-Aged 'Star Wars' Trilogy Eye Roll Across Galaxy

Associated Press
Esther Zuckerman 10,690 Views Feb 15, 2013

Here's the latest Star Wars bombshell that may or may not disappoint everyone in the universe: Harrison Ford is apparently set to return to Episode VII as Han Solo. The scoop comes from Latino Review's El Mayimbe, who says it's a done deal, and while his sources can be solid, obviously it is not official in any way. Also, obviously, Old Han Solo and friends doesn't exactly sound like the J.J. Abrams franchise reboot fans had been waiting for. It's not as bad as Shia LaBeouf as Young Han Solo in a separate planned spinoff, but still — this could be weird.

As the Playlist points out there have been other murmurs about the original trio of lead actors getting involved. For instance, Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker, told Entertainment Weekly in October that he and Carrie Fisher (Leia) met with George Lucas about plans for the new trilogy, though there was no mention as to whether they would reprise their roles. A Lucas biographer (who wrote an unauthorized book on the director) told The Wrap that the new trilogy, which Disney vaguely plans to pick up where Return of the Jedi left off, features Luke Skywalker in his 30s or 40s. So, we didn't really every think a Star Wars film about middle-aged Jedis would be realized as the stuff of middle-aged Carrie Fisher's imagination — "I like the idea of being Mrs. Solo and we've just fought and fought and I killed him," she said last fall — but maybe, just maybe, this will be a reunion tour after all.

The Harrison Ford news, obviously, raised a lot of questions across the Internet on Friday: Do we actually want to see the gang getting so old? Will it be fun? Or rather a depressing commentary on the nature of time? And how the heck are all these aging space warriors going to save the universe this time? Adam Sternbergh has a suggestion: 

We personally like to imagine "old Leia" like Carrie Fisher's character on 30 Rock, but we're not quite sure the galaxy is ready for this:

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