Star Wars, as an ongoing series and multimedia franchise, has given the world a lot. And it’s thanks to George Lucas, who created the original film series and oversaw Star Wars until Lucasfilm was sold to Disney in 2012. Lucas’s first movie, 1977’s Star Wars (later retitled Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope), introduced the most to the cinematic world, because of course it did. Sequels would expand the galaxy far, far away, but so much of the DNA of the series was first established in that original movie. And one of the many iconic characters who first appeared there was Han Solo, played by Harrison Ford in what ended up being a star-making role. And then Lucas was also one of the creative minds behind the Indiana Jones series, and those movies let Ford play the protagonist.
In Star Wars, he is a supporting character, given that Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) is the lead of that original trilogy, but what a supporting character Han is. He appeared in all three of the original Star Wars movies, wasn’t in any of the prequels for obvious reasons, and then reappeared – much older, like all the returning characters from the original trilogy – in the Disney-led sequel trilogy. Going over all of Harrison Ford’s appearances in the Star Wars series does inevitably include spoilers, but this is also perhaps the most well-known and beloved/hotly-debated (bit of both, really) film franchise of all time, so it’s very likely you’re up-to-date and all. Some of these are great, and some not so much, but you do often have to take the good with the bad once a series has spanned multiple decades.
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‘Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker’ (2019)
Just a short appearance (but he’s also the best part of the movie)
Even if a 60-year-old Harrison Ford playing Han Solo had somehow ended up in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (time travel?), it still wouldn’t be the worst Star Wars movie with Ford in it, owing to the existence of Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker, the ninth and final Skywalker Saga entry. This is a movie that hastily resurrects Emperor Palpatine, even though there was no suggestion he was still around in the past two movies, and it also clumsily backpedals on some of the interesting (albeit divisive) ideas introduced in Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi. It’s an attempted return to form, trying to do what Episode VII did, even bringing back director J.J. Abrams, but it’s all rushed, sloppy, and prone to collapsing in on itself at just about every turn.
Saying Harrison Ford stars in it is a stretch, as his one scene as Han Solo here amounts to a slightly extended cameo (and was uncredited), but it’s actually a pretty good scene. It allows some closure to happen between Han, or at least a memory of him, and his son, Ben (AKA Kylo Ren), which was needed when Carrie Fisher’s passing meant having closure between Leia and Ben – or any other character, for that matter – proved difficult. Ford and Adam Driver are both great actors, and there are still traces here relating to Kylo Ren that remain somewhat interesting, even with everything else around this scene going up in flames. It’s not a top-tier Star Wars scene, but compared to everything else going on in The Rise of Skywalker, it’s quite good. Not enough to make the entire film good overall, nor give one a huge amount of confidence in Star Wars going forward, but credit where credit’s due and all that.
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‘Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens’ (2015)
The return of Han Solo, and also a bittersweet send-off
There was a good deal of excitement around Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens in 2015, and even a little earlier, too. Disney acquiring Lucasfilm was big news, and it also didn’t take long for a seventh Star Wars movie to get announced, too. Harrison Ford returning was a big deal, as were Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill coming back, though the latter wouldn’t make a real appearance until The Last Jedi, mostly being in The Force Awakens as part of an admittedly effective cliffhanger. But if each sequel trilogy movie was intended to highlight one member of the original trilogy’s main cast, then The Force Awakens was Han Solo/Ford’s movie (and, unfortunately, The Rise of Skywalker wasn’t truly able to be Leia/Fisher’s movie).
And so Harrison Ford gets a lot to do here, and seeing Han back with Chewbacca is undeniably fun, even if some of The Force Awakens feels a little too familiar. But it’s also kind of comforting, and at least on a first watch, the movie’s too much of a rush to get too hung up on narrative and character beats getting remixed and recycled. As a beefy, junk food-esque blockbuster, The Force Awakens is relatively filling, albeit super greasy and also possibly a little much. It’s still a lot better than The Rise of Skywalker, though not the most interesting of the sequel trilogy’s entries; that honor would go to the Harrison Ford-free The Last Jedi.
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‘Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi’ (1980)
The one that Harrison Ford was infamously ambivalent about
While it didn’t end up happening, Harrison Ford did think Han Solo should’ve died before the end of the original trilogy, perhaps in Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi. To his credit, Han doesn’t have a huge impact on this final film in the original trilogy, kind of just being another soldier fighting on the good side after he’s rescued in the film’s opening act. Having some more Han Solo/Harrison Ford is always welcome, but Return of the Jedi doesn’t give him his best material. It’s like the inverse of The Rise of Skywalker, as he was a highlight there and a comparable lowlight, so to speak, of Return of the Jedi.
But emphasis on “comparable,” because he’s not entirely wasted. And, in any event, Return of the Jedi picks up the slack in other areas, because everything that goes on with Luke and Darth Vader (and, to a lesser extent, Luke and Leia) is very compelling here. Return of the Jedi is also satisfying as an action-packed finale for the first three Star Wars movies (admittedly, not the first three chronologically speaking), and there is an undeniable catharsis to seeing it conclude the way it does, after so much conflict spread out across three movies. The Force Awakens and onwards kind of erase the happy ending found here, sure, but it’s still heartwarming and euphoric in the moment.
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‘Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope’ (1977)
Introducing Han Solo and so many other people/things
George Lucas took a whole bunch of storytelling and cinematic conventions from various genres and threw them all in a blender, ultimately making Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope from all those various influences. And, to his credit, he made it work surprisingly well. The first Star Wars appealed to just about everyone, seeing as it felt like an old-fashioned adventure, it had some sci-fi elements and spins on fantasy tropes, did indeed feel like a war movie (appropriate, considering the title), and it contained plenty of action. It was hard to resist for audiences almost 50 years ago, and there is something that’s still grand and undeniably captivating about Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope when watched today… obviously, since it’s still a defining classic and all.
It’s difficult to imagine many people outright disliking Star Wars, at least this first film, and the characters were also a big part of what made this galactic battle between good and evil so compelling. The more clean-cut and naïve Luke is contrasted superbly with the roguish, borderline-antihero Han Solo, and seeing him become a full-on heroic individual by the film’s end – in turn becoming a proper ally of the Rebel Alliance – is always great to see, even when you know it’s coming. And, as mentioned before, Star Wars helped make Harrison Ford a star. He’d previously shown up in smaller roles in films like American Graffiti (also directed by George Lucas) and Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation, but Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope showed he was undoubtedly someone worth keeping an eye on beyond 1977.
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‘Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back’ (1980)
The peak of the series for many, including Harrison Ford
Since it’s one of the best sequels of all time, it’s no surprise that Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back is the best Star Wars film Harrison Ford ever appeared in. Really, anyone who was featured in The Empire Strikes Back can count it as the best Star Wars film they were in. It takes everything good/great in A New Hope and makes the good stuff great, and the great stuff even greater. It lives up to its title, with the bad guys from the first movie being out for blood, and more powerful than ever before, with the Imperial March (and Darth Vader’s beefier role) making that very apparent almost straight away. It’s a dark film at times, but it’s also just as enjoyable, adventurous, and exciting as the original, or perhaps ever more so.
The Empire Strikes Back impressively manages to be more emotional and thematically rich without ever being dour or too depressing. Everything is balanced here just right, ensuring it’s not just a great Star Wars film, but an all-time great movie more generally speaking. Luke goes through a lot here, as does Han, whose fate at the end of the film is a big reason why The Empire Strikes Back feels as dark as it does… well, Luke losing his hand and finding out what he does regarding Darth Vader hammer that home, too. The Empire Strikes Back is ultimately the film that makes the original trilogy peak right in the middle, but that’s okay. Return of the Jedi still works as a conclusion, but the single greatest – and most entirely satisfying – Star Wars movie is, inevitably, The Empire Strikes Back.
