It doesn't make much sense to me (b/c she seems set up to be pretty central already) but one rumor is that Disney was unprepared for the Rey love (see #whereisrey) and are rewriting the script to enhance her role.
Hmmm. If Ford is in Episode VIII (I think this is wrong/misinformation myself), then it's either (1) as a Force ghost [unlikely, methinks], (2) in a flashback, or (3) as an hallucination of Kylo Ren's that represents some inner struggle [a la Harry in Dexter]. There's no credible way for the character to return in the flesh, and if they did anything like Han Solo's long lost twin brother Jeff, that would be stupid.
It was just a puncture wound to his gut. Heck, people have been stabbed through the heart with butcher knives and walked blocks to the ER. And falling down a shaft that runs all the way to the planets core isn't a problem either because you're just moving to a zero G environment. But to move construction workers down to those depths without cutting into too much of the work shift, rapid transport craft would have to be widely employed. So he falls down, ever slower (air pressure increases rapidly with depth, lowering his terminal velocity) as gravity diminishes, and he lands gently on one of the fast transports. He gets in, shoves some cotton balls in his wound, and blasts clear of the planet while Kylo Ren is off fighting a lightsaber battle.
A little more than a puncture wound: an impaling followed by the saber being pulled out sideways. Solo was this close to doing a Darth Maul-style fall apart on his plunge down the shaft.
Darth Maul managed to come back..... Maybe he can come back as a lazy patch up cybernetic job. Call it a Han Job.
IMDB no longer lists Harrison Ford in the cast of Episode VIII, so I think we can say we've seen the last of Han Solo in the regular episodes.
Eh, could be. But I don't think Harrison Ford would be coming back for a cameo, and the cast is pretty full now.
Well, they'd best fire that guy and hire a new one since the entire, accurate plot of Force Awakens was online for months prior to release.
Ah, yes. You're right. Putting him on the cast list for Episode VIII could've been a disguise to keep people from guessing his fate in VII. Now that basically everyone's seen it, no need to keep up the pretense.
