A LONG time ago, the three actors who portrayed the primary “human” characters in the original Star Wars trilogy—Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia) and Harrison Ford (Han Solo)—went into their roles as relative unknowns, but emerged as superstars. They have not starred together since, but are to be reunited in the “The Force Awakens”, which gets its global release this week and sees a revival of the series by Walt Disney Studios following its acquisition of the original production company, Lucasfilm, in 2012.

Over the decades since the original films, the careers of the three stars could hardly have contrasted more. Mr Hamill and Ms Fisher have enjoyed few screen successes between them, though the latter found a career as a bestselling author and Hollywood script-doctor. Mr Hamill meanwhile fronted some notable turkeys, including 1998s “Watchers Reborn”, a straight-to-video effort centred around a secret government experiment, a mutant killer beast, and a dog with an IQ of 140. For some of the Star Wars stars, the enormous popularity of the films and their larger-than-life characters meant fans were unable to associate them with other roles. Sir Alec Guinness, the veteran stage and screen actor who starred alongside them in the first of the series, came to resent the association with his character Obi-Wan Kenobi so much that he immediately binned all fan mail, unopened.