Don't believe a word Harrison Ford says. Despite the actor repeatedly saying he'd never return to his roles as Han Solo or Rick Deckard, he's already shot Star Wars Episode VII and has now confirmed he'll be returning for Blade Runner 2.

The sci-fi sequel is set to start shooting next summer, 34 years after Ridley Scott's original was released. Although Scott confirmed the new entry back in 2012 and was once set to direct, he's now taking an executive producer role. In his stead, Denis Villeneuve, best known at present for tense thrillers Polytechnique and Prisoners, is in discussions to take the director's chair.

The original movie, loosely based on author Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? was set in a dystopian Los Angeles in 2019, a neon-lit hellhole where artificial "replicants" hide amongst the human population. Ford, as Deckard, hunted them down, the film depicting his final, reluctant case. Dealing with themes of morality and humanity, the film is notoriously ambiguous, and the existence of a total seven different cuts of the film doesn't help matters. One of the chief questions that plagues fans and critics to this day is whether Deckard himself was in fact a replicant.

Little is yet known of the plot for the sequel, other than it being set decades after the first film. Hampton Fancher, a co-writer of the 1982 classic, is returning to pen the new entry with Michael Green, with the screenplay based on an idea by Fancher and Ridley Scott. Although author K. W. Jeter, a friend of Dick's, wrote three novels that served as authorised sequels to Blade Runner, it is not thought they will provide any basis for the upcoming film.

All of which makes figuring out what Harrison Ford's involvement will be in Blade Runner 2 even harder. Will it definitively answer that is-he-or-isn't-he replicant question? Will he be actively hunting down more replicants? Passing the torch to another grizzled detective? Whatever comes of his role, the studio is glad to have the iconic lead actor for the series involved again.

"We are honored that Harrison is joining us on this journey with Denis Villeneuve, who is a singular talent, as we experienced personally on Prisoners," producers Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson said. "Hampton and Michael, with Ridley Scott, have crafted a uniquely potent and faithful sequel to one of the most universally celebrated films of all time, and we couldn't be more thrilled with this amazing, creative team."

Kosove and Broderick's production company Alcon Entertainment acquired rights to Blade Runner in 2011, and have plans to develop the property into a full franchise, with prequels as well as sequels in the pipeline.

This story originally appeared on WIRED UK.