George Lucas: Hamill, Fisher & Ford 'Pretty Much Signed' for STAR WARS Sequel

In a new article published in Bloomberg Businessweek regarding the Disney's recent acquisition of Lucasfilm, George Lucas revealed that Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford had pretty much been signed on for Star Wars: Episode VII before the Disney deal was even made.

"We had already signed Mark and Carrie and Harrison-or we were pretty much in final stages of negotiation," Lucas said. "So I called them to say, 'Look, this is what's going on.'" He pauses. "Maybe I'm not supposed to say that. I think they want to announce that with some big whoop-de-do, but we were negotiating with them." Then he adds: "I won't say whether the negotiations were successful or not."

As BWW reported earlier this week, Carrie Fisher had confirmed the news that she would reprise her iconic role of Princess Leia in an interview with a Florida publication.

The studio is also developing standalone films featuring characters from the franchise. Disney's Bob Iger also revealed that he's looking to expand sales of "Star Wars" merchandise overseas, while ABC and Lucasfilm are discussing a possible live-action TV series.

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