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Harrison Ford Killed Han Solo After Decades Of Trying
Lucasfilm
There was a spoiler in that title, incidentally. So ... heads up.
It's not exactly a secret that Harrison Ford has been trying to kill Han Solo for years. During the filming of the original trilogy, Ford felt that Solo's character arc -- a self-centered rogue who slowly grows to believe in something greater -- would have been capped off nicely with a meaningful death scene during Return Of The Jedi.
Lucasfilm Or at the very least, a slapstick one.
But Han Solo didn't die in Jedi. (That was another spoiler, sorry, sorry.) This annoyed Ford, who by this point clearly had mixed feelings about how much people associated him with that character. Check out this interview Ford has with David Letterman. He is nominally there promoting Blade Runner, and after Letterman asks him a question about Return Of The Jedi you can see how close he comes to boiling over.
NBCUniversal Television Distribution Serious danger of a "Han shoots first" moment here.
It was awkward, and moments later, he'd storm out of the interview.
Decades later, you could tell he was still kind of carrying this chip around on his shoulder. When promoting The Force Awakens on Jimmy Kimmel's show, Kimmel asked Ford if he was grateful that his character endured for so many years. Ford clearly had to think about this a bit before answering.
Disney–ABC Domestic Television There were, uh, a few things going on in this interview, actually.
But in that same interview, he again talks openly about his desire to see the character killed off. He does it again on the same show a few months later (although for some reason, this time he isn't dressed as a hot dog). And then there was that Jimmy Fallon interview wherein, upon being asked if he got emotional when he put Han's costume back on, the cantankerous professional handsome man answered, "No, I got paid."
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