--- description: When we asked him about why the Star Wars prequels weren’t great title: Harrison Ford Does Not Want to Talk About the Star Wars Prequels image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt458153ab3364a756/69887378196cf4087103943b/star-wars-the-force-awakens-movie-poster-harrison-ford-han-solo-800x1167.jpg?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [movies](/tag/movies/) ## movies Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Harrison Ford Does Not Want to Talk About the _Star Wars_ Prequels by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 7, 2015 12:00 PM CUT  Lucasfilm by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Dec 7, 2015 12:00 PM CUT Harrison Ford is back as Han Solo in _The Force Awakens._ The film is being touted as a return to the aesthetic of the original _Star Wars_ trilogy, including real sets, weathered props and selective use of CGI. During an interview for TIME’s recent [cover story](http://time.com/4134371/how-j-j-abrams-brought-back-star-wars/ "undefined"), we asked Ford about the much-maligned _Star Wars_ prequels_,_ specifically the enthusiastic use of computer-generated images. Ford deftly declined to answer. Here’s what he said: **Ford:** Well, we walk the line of a wholly digital green screen movie. We did not do that, there’s a great advantage to building physical sets. Both in spending and they help ensure you’re keeping it to a human scale. I think of the problems with the CGI is that you can, if you need 100 villains and you’re only a few keystrokes from having 1000, and what the hell, it’s the same price. What happens is you overwhelm the human experience with kinetics and you lose what I refer to as scale. What needs to be preserved is the emotional experience a human being can identify with. **TIME:** **Do you think there was some of that happening in the prequel trilogy?** **Ford:** I don’t. I wouldn’t say that. I mean, I wouldn’t let you ask me that. **TIME:** I was taking a fly on that one. **Ford:** Nice try, cowboy. **Read next:** * [Here’s How Adam Driver Learned to Master the Dark Side](http://time.com/4129579/adam-driver-masters-dark-side-star-wars-the-force-awakens/?xid=tcoshare "undefined") * [Gwendoline Christie on Why Her _Star Wars_ Costume Is a ‘Step Forward’ for Women](http://time.com/4129483/gwendoline-christie-star-wars-the-force-awakens-captain-phasma-costume/ "undefined") * [The 10 Most Fascinating _Star Wars: The Force Awakens_ Fan Theories](http://time.com/4116403/star-wars-force-awakens-fan-theories/ "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4132998/star-wars-the-force-awakens-harrison-ford-prequels/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4132998/star-wars-the-force-awakens-harrison-ford-prequels/"},"headline":"Harrison Ford Does Not Want to Talk About the Star Wars Prequels","datePublished":"2015-12-07T12:00:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T13:03:09.503Z","description":"The actor shut us down","url":"https://time.com/4132998/star-wars-the-force-awakens-harrison-ford-prequels/","keywords":["movies","Star Wars topic"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt458153ab3364a756/69887378196cf4087103943b/star-wars-the-force-awakens-movie-poster-harrison-ford-han-solo-800x1167.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt458153ab3364a756/69887378196cf4087103943b/star-wars-the-force-awakens-movie-poster-harrison-ford-han-solo-800x1167.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Star-Wars-The-Force-Awakens-Movie-Poster-Harrison-Ford-Han-Solo-800x1167","caption":"","creditText":"Lucasfilm","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4132998/star-wars-the-force-awakens-harrison-ford-prequels/","name":"Harrison Ford Does Not Want to Talk About the Star Wars Prequels"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Photographing TIME's Star Wars Cover","description":"For the latest issue of TIME, Marco Grob photographed the cast members of","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/KXrQmNTF/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-12-03T11:59:55.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/KXrQmNTF.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4132998/star-wars-the-force-awakens-harrison-ford-prequels/","duration":"PT3M31S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4132998/star-wars-the-force-awakens-harrison-ford-prequels/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```