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[Spoiler warning] "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" proved to be one of the darkest films in the franchise, with the death of Han Solo (Harrison Ford) being one of the biggest highlights of the film. According to a report from Screen Rant, there was a rumor of Ford coming back for the sequel but this rumor has since been shot down.
According to the report, there was initially a casting call post on Movie Casting Call searching for an actress aged 25 to 30. The casting call also listed Harrison Ford as one of the characters returning for "Star Wars Episode VIII" and it was widely assumed that he may appear in a flashback or even as a Force ghost despite not being a Jedi.
However, this casting call has since been proven fake. According to the report's official update, employees from Lucasfilm have confirmed that there is no truth to the casting call. Screen Rant also presumed the post to be fake before it was confirmed when it was noticed that the post was made long before the film released in theaters.
It is also common knowledge that when the original trilogy was being made, Harrison Ford was unsure if Han Solo should be featured in "Return of the Jedi." Instead of killing him off, the character was frozen in carbonite just in case Ford would indeed return, which he did. This time however, the character is indeed dead and is not coming back.
However, despite the darker tone of "The Force Awakens," it appears that the next film will be even darker. Many fans are already speculating it will be akin to how dark "The Empire Strikes Back" was to "A New Hope." Actor John Boyega also stated that the film would be much darker in tone while speaking to Vogue (via Coming Soon).
"We're just starting work on 'Star Wars VIII,' the next film, so I'm back to keeping secrets again," Boyega told the publication. "It's great. Much darker, but we're very excited."
"Star Wars: Episode VIII" releases on May 26, 2017.
