George Lucas Hints Original Star Wars Cast Returning For Star Wars Episode 7

Harrison Ford has pretty much kept his mouth shut, even though others have reported for him that he has signed a deal. Mark Hamill has claimed that he's negotiating, but no deal has been signed. And Carrie Fisher has twice confirmed that she's going to be returning as Princess Leia, only to have her rep later claim that she was joking. Now, George Lucas himself is the latest to get the Star Wars Episode 7 gossip wheel turning with some statements he made in an interview with Bloomberg BusinessWeek. When asked if members of the original cast would return for Star Wars Episode 7, George Lucas said, "We had already signed Mark and Carrie and Harrison—or we were pretty much in final stages of negotiation. So I called them to say, 'Look, this is what's going on.'" Then, Lucas added, "Maybe I'm not supposed to say that. I think they want to announce that with some big whoop-de-do, but we were negotiating with them. I won't say whether the negotiations were successful or not." George Lucas' comments certainly seem to add credibility to reports that the original Star Wars cast might already be signed to deals, and Disney is just trying to keep things quiet to make a big announcement. As we pointed out, it's kind of interesting that Carrie Fisher's rep in issuing her Carrie was only joking claim didn't say it wasn't happening but that just nothing had been announced yet.