10 Movie Characters You Won't Believe Were Nearly Killed Off

2. Han Solo - The Star Wars Saga

A couple of weeks ago we talked about how in earlier drafts of Star Wars Darth Vader was going to die in the finale, but there was another character from the beloved space fantasy who could also have died prematurely. Nowadays when an actor's brought onto a franchise they're automatically tied into a set number of sequels (even before he popped up at the end of Iron Man Samuel L. Jackson was locked into nine Marvel movies). Back when Star Wars came out things were different, with Lucasfilm having to actually convince the stars to return. And one of them really didn't want to. Harrison Ford, who over the course of the original trilogy transformed into one of the biggest actors in Hollywood, found Han Solo a rather "thin" character, serving more as a likeable plot device than a real player in events like Luke or Leia. He obviously did agree to do two more films, but that didn't mean Solo was safe. When Episode VI rolled around Ford was putting pressure on the creatives to kill off his character. It was more than just actor grumbling however; there was a logic to killing Han - at the start of the film Han was already in a deadly situation, while his loss would provide motivation for the other heroes - with writer Lawrence Kasdan jumping on board with the idea. George Lucas, however, wasn't as keen, insisting the three heroes should all survive (ever the forward thinker). In the grand scheme of things this could have had a seismic effect on Star Wars. So much of the Expanded Universe material revolves around the Solo clan (Han and Leia's eldest son became a new Sith Lord and Chewbacca died saving another of their children), while an Episode VII lacking in everyone's favourite smuggler would have certainly been a less enticing movie.