Lucas: Hamill, Ford and Fisher will return

[Elfdart]

LINK

The cat keeps creeping out of the "Star Wars" bag when it comes to the reports that original cast members Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher will reprise their roles from the classic sci-fi film.
The latest evidence: George Lucas has opened his big mouth.

Lucas all but confirmed that the actors who originally played Han Solo, Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia will reclaim their famed characters in "Star Wars: Episode VII." "We had already signed Mark and Carrie and Harrison -- or we were pretty much in final stages of negotiation. So I called them to say, 'Look, this is what's going on,'" Lucas (accidentally?) told Bloomberg Businessweek.

Lucas backtracked, saying, "Maybe I’m not supposed to say that. I think they want to announce that with some big whoop-de-do, but we were negotiating with them."
Then he tried to cover his tracks: "I won’t say whether the negotiations were successful or not."

Interesting article at Business Week.

[ray245]

Oh boy. I wonder how is JJ Abrams going to react to having Lucas around, leaking rumors everywhere.

[Havok]

Who cares. It's not going to effect anything. Lucas is notorious for secrecy about story and production of the movie, not the actors who are in it.

[Darksider]

Yeah but here's the thing.

It isn't his movie anymore. He's consulting, but he isn't the one in charge. If he wants to reveal details, he should check with Abrams or Disney first.

[Batman]

How do you know he hasn't? If nothing else, this is going to increase interest in the new movie, which is something Disney would probably approve of?

[Darksider]

The fact that he immediately backtracked his statement and said he wasn't sure "they" wanted anyone to know?

It looks very much like he, at the very least, wasn't sure he was supposed to admit it.

[Havok]

What are Abrahms and Disney going to do? Fire him? Who gives a fuck.

[Batman]

Could've been Lucas did overstep his bounds, could've been they did it this way on purpose to make it look like that to keep people's interest. I guess we'll eventually find out on the DVD commentary (or you will, at any rate, I never bother with taht stuff).

[Thanas]

The amount of which I expect the movie to suck is only increasing.

[Havok]

Yeah my hope is diminishing as well.

[Batman]

I thought 'this is inevitably going to suck' was my beat
But yes, I'm wary about this new movie, too.

[Flagg]

You're getting the actors from the OT back reprising their roles in a new nonprequel Star Wars movie? Clearly a cause for concern.

[ray245]

I pretty much lost all hope this movie would actually be good the moment they announced they hired JJ Abrams.

[Havok]

You're getting the actors from the OT back reprising their roles in a new nonprequel Star Wars movie? Clearly a cause for concern.

Part of the reason I hate the EU so much is that it couldn't get rid of the cast of the movies and make itself into something new.

I am looking forward to the ancillary movies more than the saga continuation.

[Captain Seafort]

Part of the reason I hate the EU so much is that it couldn't get rid of the cast of the movies and make itself into something new.

The problem with the EU wasn't that the movie cast were still around, it was that they were the ones gallivanting round the galaxy saving the day. So long as they're kept in the background as the elder statesmen then I don't see a problem.

[Elfdart]

The amount of which I expect the movie to suck is only increasing.

Yeah my hope is diminishing as well.

I didn't like the idea of sequels to begin with, but this seems like the worst kind of fan service, which never works out well. It's like an old band having a reunion tour, getting on stage and asking the audience "Uh, any requests?"

[DaveJB]

I'd like to think that the producers have learned enough from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull to know that putting a trio of 60-somethings in the forefront of the action is likely to result in... well, probably still a fuckton of box-office revenue, but it'd sure as hell destroy every shred of credibility Abrams earned from Mission Impossible and Star Trek.

Besides, while I don't doubt that Ford could get into action hero shape again if he wanted (not that I imagine he will, given how much ridicule he got over Indy 4), Hamill likely isn't going to be inclined to do that, given that he's mostly done voice work for the last couple of decades, and Fisher even less so. Putting them in the sidelines would be fine, but not as the main heroes.

[Boeing 757]

As long as they're not the main heroes, I don't care. The news do sound pretty bad though, but what can we do about it....

[Knife]

Yeah, as long as they aren't the main heros, I'm still good. As long as they don't kill Han like they killed Kirk, I'm ok. The idea of passing the torch to a new generation has it's appeal.

[Darksider]

The problem with the EU wasn't that the movie cast were still around, it was that they were the ones gallivanting round the galaxy saving the day. So long as they're kept in the background as the elder statesmen then I don't see a problem.

Even this wasn't immediately a problem. Remember that the EU stories initially picked up only a few years after ROTJ, when it would make sense that Luke, Leia, and Han might still be involved in stuff, taking the fight to imperial holdouts, etc. It didn't really get ridiculous until the NJO, when you had them still doing shit even though they were in their late forties.

The problem is the sheer amount of time that has passed since the OT now. If they decide to follow the RL timeline and st the sequel movies thirty-eight years after the OT, all the characters will be in their fifties and sixties. If they decide to set it after the current EU, they'll be even older than that. There's just no credible way they can have these three doing action scenes in the new trilogy. Maybe if they'd done it before the PT, or if Lucas hadn't waited so long for better technology, but certainly not now.

[Captain Seafort]

There's just no credible way they can have these three doing action scenes in the new trilogy. Maybe if they'd done it before the PT, or if Lucas hadn't waited so long for better technology, but certainly not now.

Why not? The issue is the new trilogy should be the story of a different generation, not that they're too old. Alec Guinness was in his early 60s at the time of ANH and Lee was past 80 in the prequels.

[Batman]

And neither Guinness nor Lee did much in the way of action scenes.

[Srelex]

The problem is the sheer amount of time that has passed since the OT now. If they decide to follow the RL timeline and st the sequel movies thirty-eight years after the OT, all the characters will be in their fifties and sixties. If they decide to set it after the current EU, they'll be even older than that. There's just no credible way they can have these three doing action scenes in the new trilogy. Maybe if they'd done it before the PT, or if Lucas hadn't waited so long for better technology, but certainly not now.

I dunno, if Disney/Lucasfilm acts with any logic, they'll just have cameos or play mentor roles in the background. It's a given there'll be a new main cast. Nobody is stupid enough to make Mark Hamill leap around with a lightsaber these days.

[Darth Klingon]

I wish they kept the EU for the sequel trilogy. It would be pretty cool to see a live action Luke Skywalker using Force Lightning in the Swarm War.

My favorite EU Luke moment was when he turned to the darkside and joined the resurrected Palpatine, in an attempt to destroy the Sith from within, and then Leia redeemed him. I know the writers of Episode VII want to make it original, and I'm not asking for a carbon copy of the EU storylines, but they should've at least kept some of it.

[Tiriol]

I wish they kept the EU for the sequel trilogy. It would be pretty cool to see a live action Luke Skywalker using Force Lightning in the Swarm War.

My favorite EU Luke moment was when he turned to the darkside and joined the resurrected Palpatine, in an attempt to destroy the Sith from within, and then Leia redeemed him. I know the writers of Episode VII want to make it original, and I'm not asking for a carbon copy of the EU storylines, but they should've at least kept some of it.

Seeing Luke using Force lightning would be visually and thematically extremely strange choice in a movie, however; so far only the Sith have used it and it's shown to be very painful. Now Luke's going around and using it? It would instantly link him to Palpatine and Dooku and not in any good way.

And I simply abhor that Dark Empire storyline. Palpatine's resurrection was silly and as far as I know, nobody has actually managed to explain how this resurrected Emperor managed to convince the remaining warlords and Imperial leaders that he was genuine stuff. And even for a SW story that storyline was over-the-top and had some extremely strange moments (not to mention how much it diminishes Anakin's sacrifice and Luke's journey).