Within days of Disney announcing its purchase of Lucasfilm and plans for a new Star Wars trilogy, we were told Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford were considering a return to the roles that made them famous, with Ford's involvement later characterized as "a done deal." Then last month Hamill splash cold water on the story, saying, "I can tell you right away that we haven’t signed any contracts." But then, just this week, Fisher seemingly confirmed she'll appear in the J.J. Abrams-directed Episode VII, only for her representative to swoop in to say the actress was "joking."

Who are we to believe? How about George Lucas?

In a lengthy Bloomberg Businessweek story chronicling the Lucasfilm purchase, the filmmaker is asked directly whether the three original stars will be back. “We had already signed Mark and Carrie and Harrison — or we were pretty much in final stages of negotiation [before the Disney deal was closed]," Lucas replied. "So I called them to say, ‘Look, this is what’s going on.’ ” He then paused, the magazine stated. “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.” He then added,“I won’t say whether the negotiations were successful or not.”

It's safe to say the negotiations were successful (we know already that Hamill and Fisher met with Lucas in August, more than two months before the sale was announced). Disney certainly wouldn't announced with "some big whoop-de-do" that Hamill, Fisher and Ford won't be in the movie.