Lucas: 'Star Wars VII' to reunite original stars

Bryan Alexander, USA TODAY | USATODAY

Star Wars creator George Lucas says the films' original megastars -- Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher -- "have already signed" on to return to the screen for Star Wars: Episode VII.

Lucas told Bloomberg Businessweek that the signings came even before Disney bought LucasFilm in December.

"We had already signed Mark, Carrie and Harrison -- or we were pretty much in the final stages of negotiation. So I called them to say, 'Look, this is what's going on,'" Lucas said in the interview before realizing that he might be spoiling a big Disney announcement.

"Maybe I'm not supposed to say that," he added. "I think they want to announce that with some big whoop-de-do, but we were negotiating with them."

Ford starred as Han Solo, Fisher as Princess Leia and Hamill as Luke Skywalker in the first three Star Wars films, beginning with 1977's Star Wars and going until Return of the Jedi in 1983.

To keep some semblance of suspense about the return for the new film due out in 2015, Lucas then added: "I won't say whether negotiations were successful or not."

A Disney representative had no comment on the report.

One thing's definitely clear: Director J.J. Abrams has been announced as director of the seventh live-action Star Wars film.