Mark Hamill has discussed with Entertainment Tonight about what's currently happening with the Star Wars Episode 7 talk of old characters returning to the Saga. Hamill confirmed:
"They're talking to us," he reveals. "George wanted to know whether we'd be interested. He did say that if we didn't want to do it, they wouldn't cast another actor in our parts they would write us out. I can tell you right away that we haven't signed any contracts. We're in the stage where they want us to go in and meet with Michael Arndt, who is the writer, and Kathleen Kennedy, who is going to run Lucasfilm. Both have had meetings set that were postponed -- on their end, not mine. They're more busy than I am."
Hamill, now 61 seems keen to have the whole gang back together:
"I said to George that I wanted to go back to the way it was, in the sense that ours was much more carefree and lighthearted and humorous in my opinion, anyway. And another thing I'd want to make sure of is are we going to have the whole gang back? Is Carrie and Harrison and Billy Dee and Tony Daniels, everybody that's around from the original ? I want to make sure that everybody's on board here, rather than just one. I guess I'll have to tune into your show to figure out who's on board."
He also chimes in about the Spin Off movies coming up:
"That's really smart. Then you're more like James Bond pictures, where they come out and it's not an investment of a three-movie arc. It's so rich, that universe, in terms of quirkiness and oddball . We would talk about that . We'd go like, 'That little band that's playing in the Cantina, what's their story?! I mean, are they a traveling band? Are they the house band? Who's their manager?' They didn't have names when we first were talking about them. Now they're called, like, Sy Snootles they come up with names down the road when they have to name toys."
There's plenty more chatter from Hamill over at the Entertainment Tonight site but so far it looks as if everything is still very much "in discussion" when it comes to Star Wars Episode 7. I for one will get twenty more types of giddy if Hamill returns to the role of Luke Skywalker because seeing what happened next for Luke Skywalker has always been the biggest draw to potential Star Wars sequels for me and frankly if Hamill's in, I'm in too! We'll keep you posted on any more Episode 7 news and be sure to check out our current Star Wars articles and join in the discussions on Whatculture! May the force be with you.