Harrison Ford Gets Standing Ovation at 'Star Wars' Comic-Con Panel
— -- The panel started 10 minutes late and the crowd was getting antsy. But by the end, there was nothing but smiles and tears on the faces of the more than 6,000 assembled for the "Star Wars" Comic-Con panel in San Diego.
The highlight? Han Solo himself stepping onto the stage.
There were many cast members from the upcoming "Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens" for fans to fawn over at the panel Friday, including Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill along with newcomers Adam Driver, Oscar Isaac, Daisy Ridley and John Boyega.
But only Harrison Ford, the actor behind the iconic Solo, commanded a standing ovation when he appeared, 54 minutes into the 1-hour and 10-minute event.
“I’m good. I really appreciate it,” said Ford when asked how he was doing after he was injured in a plane crash in March.
But more importantly, how’d it feel to be back on a "Star Wars" set?
“It should have felt ridiculous,” laughed the actor. “I will tell you that it felt great.”
“It was a little bit like before, only we looked more melted,” joked Fisher.
Hamill, clearly moved by the fan support, confessed to not being a huge Star Wars trivia buff. He recently “did a 'Star Wars' trivia quiz and flunked … I can’t remember what Han Solo was smuggling, was it jewels?”
Spices, actually, the crowd reminded him.
So where are they on the newest film? In the editing process, said director J.J. Abrams, before showing a behind-the-scenes video of the making of the movie. The 3 minute 40 second package was full of explosions, robots, and flying space crafts -- but very little content was revealed to the crowd.
A new character did amble on stage, however -- Baba Jo. Looking like a shriveled camel, the animatronic pack animal was being controlled by five people off stage, said Abrams. The crowd seemed into him, though he was hardly the instant hit the robot BB-8 was at the Star Wars Celebration in April.
The rolling soccer ball robot was an immediate social media darling, while most of the talk surrounding Baba Jo seemed to be how to spell his name.
As for the new cast members, they fielded questions from what color would their lightsabers be -- rainbow for Oscar Isaac -- to what’s up with their character. Asked if he could reveal anything about his character’s connection to the dark side, Adam Driver, who plays the mysterious Kylo Ren, simply said “no.”
All of it was a little overwhelming for Elia, one of the fans in the audience, who teared up talking to ABC News after the panel.
“I got to see the legacies all in a room all together. I never thought that would happen in my lifetime,” she said about Ford, Fisher, and Hamill.
Closing the panel, Ford was asked where he thought Solo would end up after the first trilogy.
“It never occurred to think about it,” he remarked. “I never expected that it would come back.”
"Star Wars: The Force Awakens" opens Dec. 18. The film will be released by Disney, the parent company of ABC News and Lucasfilm.
