Steven Spielberg has Bridge of Spies out this year, and will next direct the Roald Dahl adaptation The BFG. But it's the movie he's scheduled to take on after that which has the geek community excited: he's directing Ready Player One, a film adaptation of Ernie Cline's popular novel. Here's the synopsis for those who haven't read it:

Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets. 

And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune—and remarkable power—to whoever can unlock them.   

For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that Halliday’s riddles are based in the pop culture he loved—that of the late twentieth century. And for years, millions have found in this quest another means of escape, retreating into happy, obsessive study of Halliday’s icons. Like many of his contemporaries, Wade is as comfortable debating the finer points of John Hughes’s oeuvre, playing Pac-Man, or reciting Devo lyrics as he is scrounging power to run his OASIS rig.

And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle.

Suddenly the whole world is watching, and thousands of competitors join the hunt—among them certain powerful players who are willing to commit very real murder to beat Wade to this prize. Now the only way for Wade to survive and preserve everything he knows is to win. But to do so, he may have to leave behind his oh-so-perfect virtual existence and face up to life—and love—in the real world he’s always been so desperate to escape.

Sounds pretty awesome, right? The Wrap has an idea of who is competing for the female lead, a VR avatar named Art3mis who is also hunting for Halliday's Easter egg. Elle Fanning, Olivia Cooke, and Lola Kirke (pictured above, left to right) are all testing for the role along with two other mystery actresses. Fanning is probably the most familiar to general audiences, having appeared in Maleficent and Super 8 (which was produced by Spielberg), and Cooke had her breakout performance in the Sundance hit Me and Earl and The Dying Girl earlier this year (she also stars on Bates Motel). Kirke popped up in Gone Girl and starred in Noah Baumbach's indie film Mistress America.

Cooke is also on the shortlist for Rian Johnson's Star Wars: Episode VIII, but it remains to be seen if she could conceivably star in both projects since Ready Player One hits theaters on December 15th, 2017 and Episode VIII arrives on May 26th, 2017. Seems like she'd have a heck of a busy year next year if she were to score both roles.

Also, it's worth noting that Variety writer Justin Kroll has heard that Jurassic World and The Kings of Summer star Nick Robinson is on Spielberg's radar for the male lead, which makes sense considering Spielberg's involvement with him on Jurassic World.

Those of you who've read Cline's book: who do you think would make the best Art3mis, and is Robinson a good fit for Wade?

With all of the big Star Wars toy announcements we've been getting lately, some cool new action figure promo art has surfaced for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. They feature an Elite Speeder Bike with a black Elite Stormtrooper and an Assault Walker with one of the new white Stormtroopers of The First Order. I believe this is the first time I've seen a black Stormtrooper like this for the movie, and as you can see, it also has the red markings across the chest, which has been joked about looking like it has sponsored by Dodge. I included a tweet at the bottom of the post to see the comparisson. 

The photos come from Starwars7news, and they offer the following speculation:

As you can see both troopers appear to operate in a jungle like terrain. This is most likely the planet where Maz Kanata’s castle is located. The BTS footage showed us a quick glimpse at an action sequence taking place there, so probably expect these guys to be involved in it. I won’t be surprised if we see another speeder bike chase (like from ROTJ) in the jungle. As you remember the cast and crew filmed for a few weeks in Puzzlewood, which will most like stand for the jungle around Maz Kanats’a castle.

To check out some of the other Star Wars toys that are being released, click here.

The First Order Sponsored by Dodge!!!! #TheForceAwakens #specialforces #SRT pic.twitter.com/PRZuSSgH92

— Comrade J Red (@ComradeJRed) September 2, 2015

A couple years ago Steven Spielberg shared his thoughts on Hollywood's impending doom, saying, "There’s eventually going to be a big meltdown. There’s going to be an implosion where three or four or maybe even a half-dozen of these mega-budgeted movies go crashing into the ground and that’s going to change the paradigm again."

Spielberg still believes that is going to be the case, and in a recent interview with The Associated Press, the director says that all these awesome superhero movies will go the "way of the Western." That means they will basically fade away like the western genre did. When asked about his initial comments, the director said:

"I still feel that way. We were around when the Western died and there will be a time when the superhero movie goes the way of the Western. It doesn't mean there won't be another occasion where the Western comes back and the superhero movie someday returns."

Westerns still have yet to make a comeback. Quentin Tarantino is one of the few directors trying to keep them alive. Westerns just aren't as marketable as they used to be, which is kinda sad because I freakin' love the old westerns and I wish there were more of them being made. 

I really hope that superhero movies don't share the same fate. I'm really enjoying them, as are millions of other people. But it's really not that hard to believe that one day they won't be as popular as they are now. One day there might be a whole generation fans like myself who feel the same way about superhero films as I do about westerns, and it will take a great director like Quentin Tarantino to help resurrect the dead superhero genre. 

Hollywood has gone through phases like this all throughout history in regards to these kinds of genres. It's a cycle that movies seem to naturally go through based on the appetites of the audience who pay to watch them. Spielberg goes on to say:

"I'm only saying that these cycles have a finite time in popular culture. There will come a day when the mythological stories are supplanted by some other genre that possibly some young filmmaker is just thinking about discovering for all of us."

Right now the audience for superhero films is strong and booming, so it's not going to go away anytime soon. But who knows what it will be like 15 to 20 years from now. Let's just enjoy it while it lasts! 

This amusing animated web series, City in Crisis, was sent to me, and now I'm sharing it with you. It's a Batman spoof that features alternate an version of the Batman characters. The story follows Commissioner Jordan who ignites the signal to call City Shark... for his personal issues. It offers us a funny take on the relationship between Batman and Commissioner Gordon. 

"Imagine a city so overrun by crime that it created a hero to defend it - a hero who works outside of the law. A masked vigilante. Now imagine that hero gave the city a way to call him, a signal that could be shone in the night sky. A signal to strike fear in the hearts of criminals.  Now imagine the one man with the power to control that signal only wants to use it to hang out with the hero, talk to him about his life problems, and hopefully start a fulfilling bromance."

The series was co-created by Ellery VanDooyeweert and Kevin Pavlovic for MondoMedia. You can watch the first five episodes of the web series in the embed below. I hope you enjoy it!

When Marvel signed an actress as big as Rosario Dawson to join the cast of Daredevil, we knew there was no way she'd only appear in that one series alone. She's already set to show up again in Jessica Jones opposite Krysten Ritter, as well as in Daredevil season 2, and now we have confirmation that she'll continue to show up in the Marvel Universe beyond that. Deadline reports that the actress will reprise her role of Claire Temple on Netflix's upcoming Luke Cage, the third original Marvel series that will debut on the streaming service. 

Mike Colter will star in the show as the title character, a "wrongly accused man who, granted strength by a sabotaged experiment, escapes prison to become a superhero for hire." Like Dawson, he'll make his first appearance in the Marvel Universe in a different Netflix show, because he's also showing up in Jessica Jones when that debuts later this year. Cage and Dawson's Temple have a romantic relationship in the comics, so it seems like a no-brainer that Dawson should play a part in this show.

Meanwhile, Sons of Anarchy star Theo Rossi, who played Juan Carlos "Juice" Ortiz on that series, has also joined the cast of Luke Cage. He'll reportedly play Shades, a character from the comics who served prison time with Cage before becoming a hoodlum for hire. In the comics, he wears a visor that shoots optic blasts, so we'll see if that aspect transfers over to the show or if they try to keep things a little more grounded.

Michael Bay's Transformers movies were the entry point into the franchise for general audiences, but real fans grew up watching the original animated series, and the new game Transformers: Devastation has done a great job capturing that visual style. We just saw a new gameplay trailer a few days ago, and now Platinum Games is back with a new behind-the-scenes video that allows us to see voice actor Peter Cullen provide the vocals for Optimus Prime in the game.

Cullen has been voicing Prime since the 1984 series and has been the main man behind the character ever since. This video gives us some insight into his process of trying to imbue the Autobot leader with strong but sensitive qualities, as well as some awesome-looking footage that gets us excited about checking this out when it hits shelves on October 6th.

Via: ComingSoon

Scream Queens creator Ryan Murphy has released the opening title sequence for his new horror/comedy anthology series. Murphy has been developing some fantastic TV shows lately, and I think Scream Queens has the makings of a huge hit. As a horror fan, it's also a series I'm looking forward to watching,  

The series focuses on a sorority house that is terrorized by a serial killer known as the Red Devil, who is featured prominently in the opening sequence along with several of cast members. The series stars Emma Roberts, Lea Michele, Abigail Breslin, Nasim Pedrad, Oliver Hudson, Skyler Samuels, Keke Palmer, Billie Lourd, Diego Bonita, Glen Powell, Lucien Laviscount, Niecy Nash, Nick Jonas, Ariana Grande, and Jamie Lee Curtis.

It was previously revealed that only four of the 25 characters in the series are expected to survive the first season, which is pretty awesome. I don't think anything like that has been done before on a TV series, which is an impressive. Here's the synopsis:

The girls of Kappa House are dying for new pledges. SCREAM QUEENS is a new killer comedy-horror series from Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan, the Emmy- and Golden Globe Award-winning executive producers of GLEE and “American Horror Story.”

Wallace University is rocked by a string of murders. Kappa House, the most sought-after sorority for pledges, is ruled with an iron fist (in a pink glove) by its Queen Bitch, CHANEL OBERLIN (Emma Roberts). But when anti-Kappa DEAN MUNSCH (Jamie Lee Curtis) decrees that sorority pledging must be open to all students, and not just the school’s silver-spooned elite, all hell is about to break loose, as a devil-clad killer begins wreaking havoc, claiming one victim, one episode at a time. Part black comedy, part slasher flick, SCREAM QUEENS is a modern take on the classic whodunit, in which every character has a motive for murder… or could easily be the next blood-soaked casualty.

It's set to premiere on Tuesday, September 22nd on Fox. This seems like one of those shows that will be fun to watch with a group of friends. To watch the trailer for the series, click here.

Exploding onto the PAX Prime 2015 scene as the first 3D Realms title since its takeover by Interceptor Entertainment, Bombshell is an action/RPG game you’ll want to keep an eye on. In this Unreal Engine-powered isometric platformer, you'll play as titular character Shelly "Bombshell" Harrison, a former Colonel in the Global Defense Force.  

As a bomb technician she failed to disarm an explosive made of alien tech — the resulting detonation taking the lives of her squad as well as her own arm. During this event, known as “The Washington Incident,” the President also goes missing. Because at this point, why not, right? The entire situation was eventually deemed her fault, and while she was given an honorable discharge, the debacle ultimately cost Harrison her career and reputation.

Because @#$% Mondays, that’s why.

As the game’s lore has it, shortly before the player assumes control of Harrison, a private military contractor approaches her. She’s offered a replacement limb made of salvaged alien tech from the same bomb disaster that cost her the flesh and blood arm she previously enjoyed. With this offer comes a chance at redemption, and Shelly embarks on a planet-hopping journey from one alien world to the next as she searches for the missing President, a task that comes with a totally chill side quest of saving the Earth from the apocalyptic threat of the hostile Kyrr and their leader: Jadus Heskel.

Like a cross between Handsome Jack and Satan.  Possibly also the Borg.

Bombshell ups the ante of awesomeness with its presentation of Shelly, our aforementioned protagonist. While a female main character is no longer unique in gaming, it’s still rare enough to get a mention. Harrison even takes a step further from many of the offerings featuring female main characters. She’s the focus of the game without doubling as a mechanism for fan service delivery or being defeminized. She gets to be feminine and badass at the same time, taking a break from the weakening trope that female characters in games can only be an obstacle or sex object.

Dystopian eyeliner on point, cleavage encased in functional looking armor, and a big damn gun.

Since we’re talking about the look of the character, let’s check out the game itself. Bombshell’s aesthetics are pure win no matter how you look at it. The detailed, multi-dimensional environments are reminiscent of ambience-rich games like Diablo III, while massive boss battles more closely resemble God of War on the scale of gritty, epic grandeur.  

Archaic-looking alien culture, complete with glowing cryptography and crumbling edifices, is juxtaposed with more familiar looking urban centers. Oh, and places that look like what would happen if the TRON universe had its own version of Hell.

End of line.

With the PAX 2015 Trailer giving us a solid look at gameplay, we can see that it’s going to require more than just frantic button mashing. A dynamic wheel menu for Harrison’s arsenal enables the player to change weapons mid-combat, with the developers touting her bionic arm as having more than 10 weaponized arm modifications possible for the enterprising player.

Despite the brutally fast pace of combat, this game is far from a run-and-gun, boasting powerful skills and a heavy hitting tech-tree for customization of play style. While the game itself is presented in an isometric platform, developers have given it the familiar controls of an FPS for an appealing fusion of the two game styles.

While the game has its roots in the Duke Nukem series, claims that it’s nothing more than a “female Duke Nukem game” seem premature. With Bombshell’s gorgeous graphics and deep RPG elements, it emerges onto the scene as a standalone franchise ready to rock your face off.

At the time of this writing, Bombshell is slated for release on Windows, PS4, and Xbox One later this year.

Yesterday, we wrote about how Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige no longer has to report to Marvel Entertainment CEO Ike Perlmutter, and why that's a very good thing for the company moving forward. (You should read the whole piece, but the short version is that Perlmutter is the guy who gave Marvel a reputation for being cheap, since he's notoriously over the top when it comes to saving money in every conceivable way.) Now there's another bit of news that could end up meaning good news for Marvel Studios in the future: Birth Movies Death is reporting that the company's Creative Committee has been disbanded.

I didn't know it had an official name, but the Creative Committee was a group that provided notes on Marvel productions through development, including people like "Alan Fine, who came with Perlmutter to Marvel through Toy Biz, Brian Michael Bendis, who is a prolific Marvel Comics writer, Dan Buckley, publisher of Marvel Comics and Joe Quesada, former editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics and the current Chief Creative Officer of Marvel Enterprises." BMD says the notes that drove Edgar Wright away from Ant-Man came from this group, and that they often focused on nitpicky details that didn't have anything to do with the overall tone of the films, regularly causing delays in development because it took them so long to give their notes.

So what does this mean for Marvel movie fans? Probably not much in the short term. Civil War and Doctor Strange are likely too far along to benefit from the company's newfound freedom, but the rest of Phase Three sounds like it could move forward with a purer vision from Feige and his collaborators, unencumbered by the weight of having to serve all of these different masters.

Also worth noting: BMD says that it was Perlmutter, who once worked in the toy business, who was singlehandedly stopping the production of Black Widow toys because he didn't think girl toys would sell. The 72-year-old Perlmutter seems extremely out of touch with what the fans want, but since he still controls all other Marvel divisions outside of Marvel Studios, it's unclear whether or not we'll see Black Widow merchandise ever make its way to stores.

GeekTyrant VS has just released their newest episode, and it features two teams of Marvel fans debating over who would win in a fight, Captain America and Black Widow from The Avengers or Star-Lord and Gamora from Guardians of the Galaxy. Watch the video and let us know you you think would win in a fight! To catch up on all of our previous episodes, click here. Also make sure to subscribe to our GeekTyrant YouTube page if you haven't already. Enjoy the show!

Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuerrie's Jack Reacher turned out a lot better than I was expecting. I actually walked out of that movie really loving it, and I hoped that we would get to see more films from this badass character. I know Cruise doesn't fit the role of the character from the books, but that still didn't stop me from enjoying the movie!

Paramount Pictures has announced that Jack Reacher 2 will be released on October 21st, 2016, and I couldn't be more happy about it. This is a character that deserved another adventure on the big screen. The sequel reunites Cruise with director Edward Zwick, who previously worked with Cruise on The Last Samurai. Marshall Herskovitz has also come on board to rewrite the script, which was initially written by Richard Wenk. How I Met Your Mother star Cobie Smulders has also apparently joined the cast as the female lead.

These films are based on the books by Lee Childs, and they focus on a former Major in the United States Army Military Police Corps. He quit at age 36 and he roams the United States taking odd jobs and investigating suspicious and frequently dangerous situations. 

You all know what I think about a sequel to this movie, so what do you think about it?

We've seen a lot of mods in Grand Theft Auto V since the game was released on PC, but never one quite like this: Uproxx points us to TwoDynamic's video that showcases some awesome Star Wars vehicles cruising around (and above) Los Santos. There's an Imperial Star Destroyer, the X-34 land speeder, and a speeder bike, and it is pretty crazy to see these vehicles floating around the hyper-realistic world of the game. (I especially love the part where you see land speeders just sitting in traffic, as if that's the most normal thing ever.)

There's also an even cooler video that reveals an X-Wing flying through the sky, complete with its own droid strapped in.

You can download the mod for yourself right here if you're interested.

Thanks to The CW, we have a new poster for Arrow Season 4 to share with you. It features a darker look at Oliver Queen (Stpehen Amell) sporting his new gear, and he's looking like a complete heroic badass. I'm curious to see how this next season plays out for our favorite characters. In the meantime, here's a vague synopsis that teases what's coming:

After defeating his most formidable foe to date and riding off into the sunset with longtime flame Felicity Smoak, Oliver Queen (a.k.a. The Arrow) left Starling City with the hopes of beginning a new life. But will Oliver ever truly be able to leave behind his past as the Arrow, and, if so, what becomes of the team he has worked so hard to assemble? Will Diggle, Thea, and Laurel be left to continue Oliver’s crusade without him? And with Malcolm Merlyn having ascended to the top of the League of Assassins as the new Ra’s al Ghul, is anyone really safe? 

Arrow Season 4 will premiere on Wednesday, October 7th.

While I didn't think Terminator Genisys was quite as bad as some people made it out to be, it's still far from a great film. I know Paramount was hoping to use this as the launchpad for a new trilogy, but after the movie underperformed at the box office, I actually wasn't expecting that sequel to ever happen. Now that it's made a boatload of money in China, though, I suspect we'll see Arnold Schwarzenegger, Emilia Clarke, and Jai Courtney (ugh) reprise their roles yet again a couple of years from now.

One of the film's coolest scenes involved Arnold fighting a younger version of himself, and to mark the movie's upcoming release on Digital HD starting October 20th and Blu-ray/DVD on November 10th, Paramount has sent out this new featurette that shows what filming that scene was like. It includes interviews with Arnold himself, director Alan Taylor, and more. Check it out below:

The Wrap reports that Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett is attached to star as Lucille Ball in a biopic of the iconic television star that's being written by The Newsroom scribe Aaron Sorkin.

This combination of talent sounds like it could have "Oscar" written all over it. The movie will tell the story of Lucy's 20-year marriage to husband Desi Arnaz, who starred with her on I Love Lucy in the 1950s. Blanchett is a powerhouse actress with an incredible range, so I can easily see her playing both Ball's dopier side as well as the businesswoman who rose through the ranks of Hollywood from a nobody to one of the industry's most powerful female figures.

Sorkin has written a number of films about real people, including the Oscar-winning The Social Network, Moneyball, Charlie Wilson's War, and the upcoming Steve Jobs, so it'll be interesting to see if he can keep his hot streak alive here.

Before their divorce in 1960, Ball and Arnaz had two children, Lucy and Desi Jr. They will produce this film for Escape Artists. No director has been announced yet, but this should be one of the most coveted gigs in town.

We still know very little about the verision of The Flash that we'll be introduced to in the DC Extended Universe. We know that he will be played by Ezra Miller and we've heard rumors that he might make his first appearance in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

Thanks to a Twitter account called the DCEU Feed, we might have some additional details on the Scarlet Speedster and his new look. They claim to have received their information from Miller himself. According to them, Miller confirmed that he would indeed show up as The Flash in Batman v Superman. 

He also apparently spoke about his appearance in the film, saying that his version of Barry Allan will have long hair, he will have a ripped physique instead of being bulky, and the most interesting part is that his costume will have a post-apocalyptic look to it. I'm not sure what exactly that means, but I imagine that it will be in line with the rest of the costumes that we've seen so for in the DCEU. It will probably be a darker and gritty version of the costume than what we've seen in the comics and the TV series.

This is all just a rumor for now, as I have no idea if this Twitter feed is actually legit or not. Regardless of that, this kind of stuff always sparks fun discussions among fellow geeks.

EXCLUSIVE: Thanks to a fan, Ezra Miller reveals details about #TheFlash! And confirms he'll be in #BatmanvSuperman! pic.twitter.com/X10pVFjDfU

— DCEU Feed (@DCEUFeed) September 2, 2015

I had my fair share of problems with Avengers: Age of Ultron earlier this summer, but one element that completely worked was Paul Bettany as The Vision. The way writer/director Joss Whedon seamlessly converted Jarvis into a living, breathing character was exceptional, and Bettany brought a gravitas that no one else in the film matched.

Marvel Studios has released a brief featurette that includes some interviews with Bettany, Whedon, and Robert Downey Jr. talking about the character, and I've embedded that below. Avengers: Age of Ultron arrives on Digital HD September 8th and on Blu-ray/DVD on October 2nd.

H/T: ComingSoon

Editor Antonio Maria De Silva has created something magical with Hell's Club, a mashup that features tons of characters across movie history interacting in the same fictional club. This is a Twilight Zone-style place where Ewan McGregor's young version of Obi-Wan Kenobi can walk in and make eye contact with Ewan McGregor's character from Trainspotting, or Tom Cruise in Collateral can catch the eye of Tom Cruise from Cocktail behind the bar. It's a place where John Travolta from Saturday Night Fever can bust a move on the dance floor while John Travolta from Pulp Fiction watches from above, and where Blade fights The Terminator for no reason whatsoever. It doesn't make the slightest bit of sense, but it's completely mesmerizing and makes me want almost want to see a feature-length version of a story set at this place.

Thanks to Screencrush and Movies.com for the heads up.

Last week, we learned that Daz Dillinger was working on developing a unofficial sequel to Straight Outta Compton called Dogg Pound 4 Life. It would focus on the careers of West Coast stars Snoop Dogg, Nate Dogg, Warren G, Kurupt, and of course, Dillinger. Now there's a new sequel project being shopped around the studios called Welcome to Death Row. It is based on a book and documentary of the same name, and the story revolves around many of the same people that were included in Straight Outta Compton's story.

The news comes from THR, and they offer the following information:

"While Compton chronicles the rise and breakup of seminal gangsta rap group N.W.A — a span that covers nearly a decade from the late 1980s to 1996 — and features the group's members Ice Cube, Dr. Dre and the late Eazy-E as the film's three main protagonists, Welcome to Death Row involves the years after N.W.A formed, one of the most explosive and controversial periods in music history. It's an era when rappers like Dre, Snoop Dogg and Tupac Shakur forged mega-solo careers and Death Row Records' Suge Knight reigned as the most powerful and feared hip-hop executive in the business."

There's one big snag, though: there are no music rights attached to the film project. It would be incredibly hard to make a decent movie based on this era of gangsta rap without the music. If the music isn't there, then what's the point? Of course there's a chance that they could obtain the rights to the music later in the development process. 

The movie is being shopped around by S. Leigh Savidge, who received a story and co-executive producer credit on Compton. He was able to bring in N.W.A's music rights into the project after he and Alan Wenkus began writing the film back in 2002. 

It would be great if Universal Pictures picked this one up so that they could bring together the same team to bring this next chapter of rap culture's history to life on the big screen. It sounds like it would be the next logical step. There's definitely an audience out there for it, but who knows — Universal might have another plan brewing behind the scenes that we don't know about yet.

We've already heard J.J. Abrams talk about how wonderful of an experience it was working with Harrison Ford on Star Wars: The Force Awakens and the joy it brought him to see the actor return to the iconic role of Han Solo. But he didn't always feel that way. He was actually worried that Ford wouldn't be able to pull off the Han Solo that we all know and love anymore. In an interview with the Seattle Times, Abrams explained how he wasn't sure Ford would be able to pull it off until they were on the set and shooting the film:

"What was incredible from my point of view was how apparently easily they flipped back into these roles. I knew for a fact, for example, that Harrison Ford was going to be in this movie, but I couldn’t be certain that Han Solo would be. Meaning, I hadn’t seen Han Solo return after nearly 40 years, either. And it wasn’t until we got on set that I got my answer. It was a remarkable thing to see how effortlessly Harrison Ford became Han Solo again."

I can only imagine that Abrams had the same concern for Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher. This isn't the first time Abrams hinted to his worries about Ford. There was at one point he worried about his growly voice, saying: 

“I knew that he had done in some movies a kind of more growly thing, and I didn’t want Han to be growly.”

That's obviously not going to be a problem. Those fears Abrams had seemed to melt away when he saw “a fire in his eyes that you see in the movie.” I think fans all got a glimpse of that fire when we saw Han Solo pop up at the end of that second teaser trailer for the movie. 

I don't know about you, but I never doubted that Ford would just step right back into the role of Han Solo with no problems at all.