The Star Wars galaxy has expanded, with The Mandalorian and Grogu unfolding between the Jedi's return and the Force awakening. But the original trilogy is why you care, so check in with the cast now.
You say you love checking in with the cast of Star Wars?
Not always onboard with the sentiment, however, was Harrison Ford, who admittedly tried to put a lot of mileage between himself and Han Solo after Star Wars: Episode VI—Return of the Jedi closed out the initial trilogy in 1983.
Hence his own surprise to be so moved by his experience returning to a galaxy far, far away for 2015's The Force Awakens.
"I never thought it would come back to bless me rather than haunt me,” Ford admitted at San Diego Comic-Con at the time, adding, "The original Star Wars that I was a part of really was the beginning of my working life.”
But while a few (dozen) other projects may be jockeying for prime position in the 84-year-old's screen legacy, Mark Hamill knows where his celebrity Force lies.
"I’ll never get used to the fan reaction," he told Parade in 2017, when he returned as Luke Skywalker in The Last Jedi. Noting he'd just been to New York Comic-Con, Hamill explained, "It’s so ingrained in their life experience; they’re transformed by it. Some of them are just vibrating because they’re so excited."
Even just in the past decade, let alone the 49 years since the original Star Wars (a.k.a. Episode IV—A New Hope, the extra title bestowed on it in 1981) came out, the universe has expanded dramatically on screens of all sizes, with streaming series like The Mandalorian and Andor filling in the lore gaps along with the likes of Rogue One and Solo (both subtitled A Star Wars Story).
The latest installment in the sprawling franchise, 2026's The Mandalorian and Grogu, has landed on Disney+, starring Pedro Pascal as the mostly helmeted titular bounty hunter and the cutest CGI-enhanced animatronic puppet you've ever seen.
But though almost everyone who's populated the live-action cinematic universe and various TV shows have been distinguished additions to the canon, we're only here because of the unbelievable chemistry generated by the actors in the O.G. trilogy—whether they ever showed their faces or not.
So, while we'll never tell you the odds, we are here to catch you up on what happened to the Star Wars cast after they first made movie magic. Don't everybody thank us at once:
Playing Han Solo wasn't career-defining for Harrison Ford, but only because he's also Indiana Jones, as well as a Best Actor Oscar nominee for Witness, and the star of blockbusters such as The Fugitive and Air Force One.
And by the time he took his talents to TV, it was a prestige move, and he's a two-time Emmy nominee for Shrinking.
Born in 1942, Ford shares two sons with first ex-wife Mary Marquardt, a son and daughter with late second ex-wife Melissa Mathison, and son Liam with wife Calista Flockhart.
Mark Hamill used the Force that was playing Luke Skywalker to be an in-demand presence at every Comic-Con ever after.
