J.J. Abrams Talks About The Return of Han Solo in STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS

"Chewie, we're home." With those three words, Harrison Ford electrified audiences at Star Wars Celebration and across the world in the newest trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Seeing Han Solo on screen again brought tears to the eyes of many fans, and it pushed the excitement for J.J. Abrams' upcoming film to a whole new level.

Vanity Fair has been publishing some great Star Wars-related stuff over the past couple of days, and in a brief snippet of an interview with Abrams (the rest of which will arrive online later this week), the director spoke about working with Ford and seeing him slip back into the character after all of these years:

But the magic of Star Wars isn’t all about the creatures; the best effect in the wildly popular new trailer (88 million views and counting!) may have been Harrison Ford, slipping seamlessly back into Han Solo’s classic slow grin. Abrams himself was surprised by the performance and said that Ford “was excited to get back in those shoes again, which was really interesting because I thought he hadn’t been a fan. I kept hearing those rumors when I was a kid.” Abrams did have one specific note for the veteran actor: “I knew that he had done in some movies a kind of more growly thing, and I didn’t want Han to be growly.” Whatever Abrams said must have worked because, as the director himself put it, “There was a fire in his eyes that you see in the movie.”

I think I speak for all of us when I say that's pretty exciting to hear. Ford has been accused of phoning in his performance in a number of films over the past decade, and I was afraid — like J.J. was — that the actor might bring some of his previous baggage with this role back to this performance. (It's widely known that he wanted his character to die in Return of the Jedi.) But it sounds like he was energized by the new blood and getting to revisit the iconic character again, and it's also nice that Abrams put the kibosh on the whole "growly" thing that has permeated his roles over the past few years. Hearing Han growl wouldn't fit with his character, and after hearing Abrams' quotes, I'm even more excited to see The Force Awakens. Expect more Star Wars news in the coming days.