Considering his screen debut happened in 1966 and was followed by 21 more acting credits in the next 11 years, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Harrison Ford was older than you thought when he filmed “Star Wars.” Born July 13, 1942, in Chicago, Ford was 34 years old when he introduced his space scoundrel character, Han Solo, to fans in the first “Star Wars” film when it was released in theaters on May 25, 1977.
Naturally, characters get older as the people who playing them age. Still Ford’s appearance didn’t change very much in the second and third films after the since-rebranded “Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope” was released and became one of the biggest box office blockbusters of 1977. As such, Ford was 37 years old when “Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back” was released on May 21, 1980, and was 40 when “Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi” opened in theaters on May 25, 1983.
While Harrison Ford’s days as Han Solo appeared to be a thing of the past after “Episode VI – Return of the Jedi” in 1983, Disney changed the “Star Wars” universe forever with the purchase of Lucasfilm in 2012. The acquisition, of course, led to a new sequel trilogy in which Ford’s Solo, Carrie Fisher’s Princess-turned-General Leia, and Mark Hamill’s Jedi master Luke Skywalker would all participate.
Ford was back for two films in the Star Wars sequel trilogy
In “Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens,” Ford, who always wanted Solo to die in the film series, finally got his wish. So, at age 73 when the film was released on December 18, 2015, Ford officially appeared to be done with “Star Wars.” However, “Episode VII” director J.J. Abrams had other plans and brought Ford’s Solo back for a brief fantasy encounter with Adam Driver’s Ben Solo-Kylo Ren in “Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker,” making the actor 77 when the film was released on December 20, 2019.
Of course, “Star Wars” didn’t mark the first time Ford reprised a character decades after first playing him. Nearly 19 years after the May 24, 1989 release of the last film in the original Indy trilogy, “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” Ford returned for “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.”
When the fourth Indy film hit theaters on May 22, 2008, Ford was 65 years old. When Ford reprised Indy for the fifth and final chapter in the saga, he was 80 years old when the film was released in theaters on June 30, 2023.