Harrison Ford: How Han Solo Has Changed Since Original 'Star Wars'

Harrison Ford talks about an older Han and "the rogue still left" in him.

ByABC News
November 11, 2015, 11:38 AM

— -- Harrison Ford has famously said in the past that he lobbied to have Han Solo killed off in the original "Star Wars" trilogy. Now, back as the famed smuggler in "The Force Awakens," Ford told Entertainment Weekly he's "glad that the character was still alive for me to play in this new iteration."

But Ford admits the "smart-a**," as he calls Solo, has changed in the many years since the original trilogy took over theaters everywhere.

“While we were invited to engage on the questions of some pretty arcane mysteries -- the Force and the mythology that surrounds it -- he was the guy who said, ‘What? Huh? Come on,’” he said of a young Solo.

Now, he says of the older Solo -- who you see in the trailer talking about the Jedi and the Force and how they are "real" -- that "there’s not an abandoning of the character," but there are subtle changes.

“He does not aspire to the position of Obi-‘Ben’ Kenobi, nor do I aspire to be some New Age Alec Guinness. His development is consistent with the character, and there are emotional elements which have occasioned his growth," he told EW.

"We spend a lot more time [in the movie] on his failure to master basic skills, like accounting. And accounting for his own behavior," Ford added. "There’s a lot of the rogue still left in Solo. Some things don’t change.”

Ford also spoke about his excitement to do another "Indiana Jones" movie.

“Yeah, I’d love to do another 'Indiana Jones,'” he told the magazine. “A character that has a history and a potential, kind of a rollicking good movie ride for the audience, Steven Spielberg as a director -- what’s not to like?”

At 73, the acclaimed actor shows no signs of slowing down and his fans wouldn't want it any other way.

SIDEBAR: Ford told EW he called his own ambulance when the door of the Millennium Falcon broke his leg early on in shooting "The Force Awakens."

"I knew that my leg was likely broken, and I didn’t know what other injuries there were. I was mostly concerned about the long ambulance ride to London. I asked them to bring my cell phone over," he said.

So he called in an air ambulance. And the rest is history.