Star Wars: 20 Things You Didn't Know About The Empire Strikes Back

4. Han Solo Was Frozen In Carbonite Because Harrison Ford Wasn't Confirmed To Return

Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back Darth Vader
Lucasfilm

The film's famously bleak ending sees, among other things, Han Solo frozen in carbonite and passed off to Boba Fett (Jeremy Bulloch), but there's one very particular reason that George Lucas decided to leave Han in limbo between movies.

As it turns out, Harrison Ford wasn't sure if he would be returning for the third film - even asking Lucas to kill him off in Empire - so to cover his hide in case Ford decided not to come back, his fate was left up in the air between movies.

Unlike Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill, Ford never agreed to sign a three-picture deal, which in retrospect seems like a huge gamble on Lucas' part. Thankfully, of course, it all worked out in the end.

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