10 Actors Whose Movie Character Requests Got Rejected
9. Harrison Ford Wanted Han Solo To Die - Star Wars: Return Of The Jedi
Though Han Solo (Harrison Ford) was eventually killed off in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Harrison Ford had actually been lobbying for the character to die for literally decades prior, and reportedly only agreed to return for The Force Awakens on the condition that Han died during the film.
Ford originally campaigned hard for George Lucas to kill Han way back in Return of the Jedi, feeling that offing one of the series' three main heroes with a grand sacrifice would lend greater emotional weight to the trilogy.
In a 2010 interview with ABC News, Ford said:
"As a character [Han] was not so interesting to me. I thought he should have died in the last one, just to give it some bottom."
Obviously Lucas didn't take Ford up on his suggestion, and the reason, according to Ford himself? "George didn't think there was any future in dead Han toys."
Given that Ford's relationship with the Han character over the years has been famously "complicated," it was probably quite the relief when his request finally got granted in The Force Awakens.
He did, however, also agree to return for a brief cameo as a vision of Han in The Rise of Skywalker, presumably because it wasn't in any way attempting to resurrect the character. And a hefty mountain of cash probably didn't hurt either.