Carrie Fisher to return for Star Wars: Episode VII?

Carrie Fisher has become the latest cast member from the original Star Wars trilogy to voice her interest in returning to her role for a new sequel planned by Disney. Fisher played space heroine Princess Leia, twin sister of Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), and lover of the money-hungry smuggler with a heart of gold, Han Solo (Harrison Ford).

While making an appearance on US television show The Chat this week, Fisher joked with host Aisha Tyler:

“I love the idea of being Mrs Han Solo, and we’ve just fought and fought and I killed him – but I’m sorry…I probably had an affair with some general.”

Since sky-rocketing to fame as Princess Leia, Fisher has had an eclectic career as an actress, a  screenwriter, a novelist and a lecturer; she has even voiced the character of Angela in Seth MacFarlane’s animated series Family Guy. She has also struggled with drug addiction and severe manic depression, chronicling her experiences in her book Postcards from the Edge, which was made into a film in 1990 and nominated for an Oscar.

Disney has confirmed that the Oscar-winning screenwriter Michael Arndt, writer of Toy Story 3 and Little Miss Sunshine, is now on board for Episode VII, but it’s very early days, and as yet we have no word on setting, plot or characters. Now that Hamill, Ford and Fisher, the three main original leads, have all expressed at least a vague interest in reprising their roles, it would seem likely that the plot of any new movie will include the classic characters in some way – but, who’s to say?

On the directorial side of things, both JJ Abrams and Steven Spielberg have said they are not up for working on the film, while rumours that Matthew Vaughn, director of Kick-Ass and X-Men: First Class, is in talks to direct, have yet to be denied.