May the 4th be with you: Who is J.J. Abrams’ favorite Star Wars character?

The next Star Wars movie is still far, far away. Luckily, there’s a punny holiday to tide fans over.

In honor of May the 4th be with you, we revisited The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams’ SiriusXM Town Hall, when he revealed his favorite character in all of the galaxy: smugger turned rebel fighter Han Solo.

“There’s this moment … where Han is telling these two new protagonists about how the Force is real, and the Jedi and everything they’ve heard is true. And it’s cool, because he’s telling them the story in the Millennium Falcon literally six feet from where he was sitting 40 years ago saying that it’s all bulls—,” said Abrams, 49.  “And it’s so cool to think that there’s a character that gets to live on in a movie who goes from being such a doubter and non-believer into someone who’s, I wouldn’t say an evangelist, but who’s validating this stuff that was so powerful and this idea that was so strong. So I’ve kind of come to really appreciate what Han Solo, not just who he was and how funny and sweet he was — I mean sweet to watch, because he was such an entertaining character — but also appreciating what he’s been through and who he is now.”

Sadly, Solo died in Episode VII by his own son’s lightsaber. But Disney is auditioning actors to play a younger version of Harrison Ford’s pilot extraordinaire for an origin film, so he won’t be gone from the silver screen for too long.

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