Apart from showing off the Millennium Falcon and some aggressive Tie Fighters, director J.J. Abrams and the rest of the folks at Disney and Lucasfilm have avoided teasing the appearance of original trilogy castmembers in Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens. Those who follow Star Wars Episode 7 spoilers on the Internet are clued in to the return of Harrison Ford as Han Solo, Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker, Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia and others, but the general public by and large has no clue.
A new reminder about those old friends not so long gone has leaked to the Internet during the past several days. It comes in the form of Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens Han Solo and Chewbacca concept art that, if accurate to the final production version of the characters, isn’t too different from how we remembering last seeing the scoundrel and his walking carpet in Star Wars: Episode IV – Return of the Jedi.
Apart from the grey hair, Han looks like he’s fresh off the Battle of Endor and his trenchcoat lost its camouflage. Chewie looks virtually identical to 30 years prior unless you nitpick and call him “fatter,” but that’s a stretch.
The source of these photos passed them along to the website MarketSaw, a rumor website that was on a roll with delivering spoilers during pre-production of James Cameron’s Avatar. They claim this source is their top Star Wars source and they trust him or her explicitly. They also claim these are “absolute final iterations” of concept art for Han and Chewie, though that doesn’t mean that either costume will be worn in the film. The loose art style in these paintings makes them look more like pitches than final artwork.
Check out the Han and Chewbacca Star Wars Episode 7 concept art below, and if you missed it, catch an early look at The Force Awakens action figure prototypes for the new characters seen in the first teaser trailer.
