Harrison Ford Rumored To Play Han Solo Again; Reports Indicate Actor Will Appear In New 'Star Wars' Movie

It looks like the Millennium Falcon will again be piloted by Han Solo in the upcoming “Star Wars” movie, as reports surfaced Friday that Harrison Ford will reprise his role as the rogue pilot. Ford has admitted in the past he would be willing to return to the franchise that provided him with his first major role as the sarcastic smuggler and ship captain whose only partner is Chewbacca.

The report comes from Latino Review’s Umberto “El Mayimbe” Gonzalez, who broke the story on Fox News Latino. Latino Review is a Hollywood Gossip site that has made its name by scooping traditional trade papers such as Variety and the Hollywood Reporter. Gonzalez noted Ford’s deal to again appear as Solo is “significant.”

News of a new “Star Wars” movie overwhelmed the Internet when the announcement was made toward the end of last year, but it was a surprise to many fans that the sometimes-prickly Ford would be willing to come back into the fold.

“Harrison is open to the idea of doing the movie, and he’s upbeat about it -- all three of them are,” an anonymous source close to Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill, who played Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker, told Entertainment Weekly in November.

The rumor came as a surprise because, in 2010, Ford, now 70, admitted he wasn’t enamored with playing Han Solo, who is considered by many fans to be the charismatic opposite of Hamill’s boyish Luke Skywalker. Ford famously hoped Solo would be killed off at the end of “Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi,” the culmination of the original trilogy, but creator George Lucas expressed reservations.

“I thought he should have died in the last one, just to give it some bottom, some gravitas,” Ford told ABC’s Peter Travers at the time. “George didn’t think there was any future in dead Han toys.”

Disney’s purchase of Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion reportedly came with a deep interest in Ford, who became one of the biggest stars in Hollywood when his “Star Wars” tenure led to the “Indiana Jones” trilogy.