Star trio to return for Star Wars VII

Los Angeles - The original stars of Star Wars have signed up to return in Disney's Star Wars: Episode VII, series creator George Lucas has revealed.

Lucas told Bloomberg Businessweek in comments published Thursday that the trio - Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher - signed onto reprise their roles even before the 4.05-billion-deal to sell Lucas Filmto Disney late last year.

"We had already signed Mark, Carrie and Harrison - or we were pretty much in the final stages of negotiation. So I called them to say, ’Look, this is what’s going on,’" Lucas said, before realizing that he may have spoken out of turn.

"Maybe I’m not supposed to say that," he continued. "I think they want to announce that with some big whoop-de-do, but we were negotiating with them."

The new film will be the seventh in the series that began with original Star Wars in 1977. Director JJ Abrams has been announced as the director of the new film, which is due to hit screens in 2015.//DPA