It’s been a rumor for a little while now that Han Solo could be making a comeback in Star Wars: Episode IX, be it through flashback or other means, but putting aside the all-round lack of evidence for the idea, one potential obstacle to getting this done just might be Harrison Ford, who seems pretty happy for his run in the franchise to have ended with The Force Awakens. But while Ford may not be itching to return, a new rumor shared by the Express alleges that Han could be showing up regardless by way of unused footage from his lengthy run in the series.
To elaborate, it’s said that Disney and Lucasfilm are going through deleted scenes from The Force Awakens that could be used in J.J. Abrams’ upcoming trilogy-closer. On top of that, the team is supposedly looking for pieces of dialogue from across all his films, potentially modifying his voice, and mixing these lines as dialogue into the new scenes.
As it stands, these claims should probably be taken with a sizable grain of salt, though we don’t doubt that the technology is there for such a feat, and seeing how Lucasfilm is known to be giving the late Carrie Fisher more or less the same treatment, perhaps it’s not so absurd to think that the team might be willing to give this a try. Besides, knowing the nostalgic that Abrams is, you can imagine he’d at least be tempted to look for a way of reuniting Han, Leia and Luke for the grand finale of the Sequel Trilogy.
Whether or not Abrams should attempt such an act of digital trickery is its own point of debate, but since hearsay is all we’ve got to go on, perhaps it’s best if we wait for a little more evidence to come our way before we start taking this report seriously. In any case, we’ll find out if the original Han still has one more movie left in him when Star Wars: Episode IX hits theaters on December 20th, 2019.