In just over two weeks, audiences around the world are returning to the galaxy far, far away with "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," and rather miraculously, no big spoilers have been spilled, yet, about the movie. Indeed, while Rolling Stone has a massive new profile about the movie, the juiciest material, it turns out, is in the new images, which also don’t reveal all that much. That said, it does say something that normally cranky Harrison Ford, who for years couldn’t fathom playing Han Solo again, is actually, dare I say it, excited to be back.
"I didn’t have the imagination to recognize the future potential for the character," he said, referring to his desire to want Han Solo dead at the end of "Star Wars: Episode VI — The Return Of The Jedi." "I was only going to do three of them, so I wanted to use the character to supply some bass notes, some gravitas. I thought to continue to be the wise-cracking cynic was not, perhaps . . . But if they’d done that then, I wouldn’t have this experience, which I think is worthy."
Moreover, he credits J.J. Abrams and his team for allowing him the freedom to tinker with his lines if they didn’t feel right. "Nine times out of 10, J.J. was dead-on with it," he said. "You know, it doesn’t feel right in your mouth, and you try a couple of other things, and then you say, ‘You know what? You’re right.’ And ‘Chewie, we’re home’ is manifestly better than ‘We’re home, Chewie,’ or a couple of the other options that I tried."
What does the future hold for Ford in the franchise? He won’t say, though the magazine does note that both he and Mark Hamill have talked with Rian Johnson….
See you on December 18th.
