Mr Star Wars himself George Lucas has revealed that three original cast members Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford are almost set to appear in Star Wars Episode VII – as soon as he finishes talking them round. Lucas let slip in an interview this week that he had pretty much already signed them on.

‘We had already signed Mark and Carrie and Harrison – or we were pretty much in final stages of negotiation’ he said. When he realised he might have just let a massive cat out of the bag, he added: ‘Maybe I’m not supposed to say that. I think they want to announce that with some big whoop-de-do, but we were negotiating with them. I won’t say whether the negotiations were successful or not.’

Previously, Fisher had said that she will be returning for the latest installment, only to have her publicist later insist that she had been joking. Additionally, Ford has already been linked to the project, with the star neither confirming or denying the rumours. This is turning out to be Tinseltown’s worst kept secret.

George Lucas can try and backpedal all he wants, but we reckon it’s safe to say that Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker and Han Solo will be back for Star Wars Episode VII. To be honest, it’s not as though Fisher and Hamill are up to much at the moment. Looks like we’ll have to wait for the aforementioned ‘whoop-de-do’…