We expected to see Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford in cameo roles while handing over the spotlight to a new generation in Star Wars: Episode VII. Now, in the wake of a dispute over the script, the three stars will be front and center in the upcoming movie.
You can take that with a grain of salt, though. The Hollywood Reporter only quotes unnamed sources, and as with most Star Wars news, nothing is official until it shows up on StarWars.com. But THR is pretty well-sourced in Lucasfilm matters; it was the only magazine to which Kathleen Kennedy granted a full-length solo interview after Lucasfilm's sale to Disney. In other words, take no more than a pinch of salt.
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We knew that original Episode VII screenwriter Michael Arndt, the guy who wrote Little Miss Sunshine, Toy Story 3 and Hunger Games: Catching Fire, left his job rather precipitously last fall. No reason was forthcoming at the time. But THR's sources say he was focusing his script on the children of the original trio, Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa and Han Solo. (In the so-called Expanded Universe of Star Wars novels that picked up where Return of the Jedi left off, the Solos have three kids, while Luke has one).
Director J.J. Abrams disagreed with Arndt's focus, though, and wanted to put Luke, Leia and Han back in the spotlight for at least one more movie. Kennedy backed Abrams. George Lucas himself also got involved in the dispute; THR's sources don't clarify on which side, but we know that Arndt's script was based on Lucas' treatment for the film. Regardless, Lucas deferred to Kennedy and Abrams, as he has done since the Disney sale.
This leaves one big question: Can Hamill and Fisher, now in their 60s, and Ford, now a septuagenerian, still carry a Star Wars movie? Ford was looking a little long in the tooth in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), let alone Ender's Game (2013). He felt that Solo should have died in Return of the Jedi and turned in a desultory performance in that film with little left for his character.
Hamill and Fisher, meanwhile, weren't in the greatest shape when they appeared at Celebration, the Star Wars convention held in Germany last summer. Rumor has it they're both working with personal trainers, but both also admitted to short-term memory problems and have not been seen in major roles on the big screen in decades.
Let's hope the Force is still strong with them, or that the definite return of R2-D2 and the likely return of Chewbacca and C-3PO will help ignite the old gang's chemistry.
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