Debate over the potential return of Luke, Leia, and Han has been underway for the past few weeks. It was reported weeks ago that Ford, Hamill, and Fisher had all signed contracts and were secured. But, then it was announced that Fisher was only fooling around when she stated that she’d play the part of Leia again.
That interview came from Palm Beach Illustrated and went like this:
Palm Beach: “Can you confirm whether you’ll reprise the role of Princess Leia?”
Fisher: “Yes.”
Palm Beach: “What do you think Princess Leia is like today?”
Fisher: “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.”
Sure sounds like a joke that was taken way out of context.
HOWEVER, a recent interview with George Lucas himself may confirm that Fisher’s comments weren’t of the satirical sort after all. Lucas has told Comic Book Movie (CBM) that “we already signed Mark and Carrie and Harrison—or we were pretty much in final stages of negotiation…”
Lucas went on to say that Disney wanted to make a big “whoop-de-do” out of the recent contract signings, so he then backtracked and told CBM that “I won’t say whether the negotiations were successful or not.” Hmm…better be careful what you say in front of a journalist, George!
Might he have forgotten for a moment that Disney actually owns the rights to the Star Wars franchise? Lucas now largely acts out the part of overseer on all of the Star Wars films. Lucas told Bloomberg Businessweek that most of the money he’s made from the Star Wars films has been “…in defense of trying to keep creative control of my movies.”
The ‘creative controller’ is exactly what Lucas’ role consists of these days. He’s on set to say “you can’t do this” and “you can do that.” He knows all the small details of his movies, and his job is to set things straight for the sake of authenticity.
It definitely sounds like all three actors are coming back to reprise their original roles. While Lucas’ comments bring us a bit closer to the truth, we’ll have to sit back and wait for Disney’s “whoop-de-do” to arrive for real confirmation!
