Mark Hamill: I wouldn't want to be in new Star Wars film without Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/dec/15/mark-hamill-star-wars-trailer-new-generation

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Mark Hamill has said he was missing from the debut trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens because JJ Abrams’ film focuses on a “new generation of characters”.

Speaking to Yahoo! Movies, Hamill appeared to contradict reports that the first new Star Wars film in a decade will centre on the iconic trio of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Princess Leia. He said he was unsurprised that his now-veteran Jedi knight had been left out of the teaser, which debuted at the tail end of last month and is reportedly on course to be the most-viewed trailer of all time.

“This is about the new generation of characters, I think that’s the most important thing,” said Hamill. “It’s the opening act of a whole new approach to the storytelling. So I never thought that the stories would be – first of all, I never thought I’d be involved in it again, period. And then, when George [Lucas] said that they wanted to do more, I rightly assumed that it wouldn’t be our story, because we had a beginning, a middle and an end.

“This must be our offspring and the current generation, with us there lending the kind of support that Peter Cushing and Alec Guinness did in the original. So no, that didn’t surprise me. And I mean, I’m one of those people where I just think, ‘Keep me out of it. I’ll ruin it, I’m sure!’ I’ll show up and just ruin the whole thing.”

Hamill also hinted he had been prepared to turn down a role in the new Star Wars movie if his erstwhile co-stars, Harrison Ford (Han Solo) and Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia), had opted against a return.

“You know, because I said to George, ‘Have you really thought this through? Because maybe it’s not such a great idea.’ But I had a feeling, I said, ‘You know what – if there’s a weak link, if Carrie [Fisher] or Harrison [Ford] decides they don’t want to do it, there’s an out. Because it’s all or nothing. It should be all of us or none of us.’ So I was ready to go either way. And now that we’re all in, we’ll see what happens.”

Hamill said of Ford’s return as Solo, the sardonic space smuggler: “I hadn’t seen him in years; I didn’t know what his feelings were. I know he’s sometimes grown impatient with people that don’t want to focus on what he’s doing currently and want to go stroll down memory lane. God knows, I’m used to that sort of thing. But who knew? And for him to jump back in so enthusiastically, I was delighted. It’s a wonderful character. Everybody loves Han Solo.”

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