A/V SOLO: A Star Wars Story (untagged spoilers allowed)

Bob Iger did an interview where he said the film follows Han from the ages of 18-24. http://variety.com/2017/film/news/bob-iger-star-wars-han-solo-spinoff-details-1202015089/

 

Michael K. Williams was on the Jim Norton & Sam Roberts radio show and spoke a bit more about his cut role. Video in the spoiler:

Spoiler

Spoiler: My reaction

I want so badly to see this version of the character design! Rich, sophisticated, and felinoid... Would've been right up my alley.

 

Spoiler

Aw man it ain't a Solo story without some type of cat. Daley Trianiis. Crispin Togorians. The trend is broken!

 

It's got a Corellian hound and a four-armed monkey already; I bet there'll be a cat in there somewhere.

Besides, we all know Lando's the funkiest cat in the cosmos.

 

and Salla being a cat-lady in the DE audio drama.

 

Finally saw Black Panther, which means I finally saw the trailer on the big screen. Dammit if it isn’t effective. It’s not as good a trailer as Rogue One’s or The Last Jedi’s, on its own merits (I think my favorite of the Disney era remains the Rogue One klaxon one), but it hits all the right notes. Han, Chewie, Lando, the Falcon, gunfights, train fights, crooks. It’s scratching that fringe itch, one of my favorite parts of the Star Wars tapestry. I really don’t expect a lot from the movie, but I find myself looking forward to it quite a bit anyway.

I think there’s something to be said for the standalone movies so far; Rogue One wasn’t that great a movie either, but divorced as it was from the ST’s spectacularly inept attempts to continue/aggressively ruin the franchise, I could enjoy it for what it was without having to get too invested into it. Just sit back and enjoy it for the Rebel Alliance porn it was. Get some spectacular Galactic Civil War visuals and then disengage again. If Solo works, I think it’ll work in the same way, providing a fun if disposable adventure in a personal-favorite but oft-neglected corner of the Star Wars universe. This is about the best I could hope for out of the Disney era, but I think it’s worth wondering if that will work to the standalones’ disadvantage with general audiences, and if that isn’t part of why we already seem to be seeing a retreat from the standalones in favor of things like Johnson’s spinoff trilogy and whatever nonsense they’re getting into with the GOT buffoons.

 

Yeah, I do think in general the spinoff films probably work a lot better for old EU fans. We're used to seeing lots of different takes, with different ideas and settings and levels of quality, good, bad, and the vast majority somewhere in the middle, on Star Wars. It helps that all the spinoff films so far have been pretty direct versions of old EU works, too, pumped up with visuals and thrills you can only get on the big screen. Rogue One was a flawed film, but it's not like Dark Forces was the best video game of all time either. Solo may suck, but we've already seen various versions of young Solo, some much better than others, and there's a lot of value for us just in seeing these settings and concepts on the big screen, with the visuals big screen money can buy.

For most of the general public, though, and even I suspect most fans, the films were the main (or only) thing, and each film was taken as Star Wars Film (with a capital F), a Big Screen Experience, a Major Pop Culture Event, etc. For that type of person, taking the big ritual step of Going to See a Star Wars Film in Theaters and then watching a mediocre film about a minor bit of backstory from ANH is probably not nearly as appealing.

So yeah, in the long run, the model probably won't last. Which is kind of a shame in its own way, though; the idea of a Big Screen EU is appealing in its way, and I for one was waiting with bated breath for the first terrible ridiculous madness spinoff a la The Crystal Star or the Glove of Darth Vader to come along.

 

That's an interesting take. I've seen the spinoffs as less geared to EU fans (since they contradict EU and that's often not taken kindly) but to hardcore fans of the films in particular, and all the super-detailed lore therein (with a side helping of NEU for newer fans via TCW and Rebels), maybe as a panacea to any new directions in the ST. But each film sort of has a different brief with regard to lore:

-R1 seems to have been conceived as a telling of a key OT-related event, but with all new characters and a new (non-Force-oriented) perspective. A lot of fan service-y stuff added later in production watered that down a lot (I don't much like those aspects of it and wish it'd stayed as originally conceived).
-Solo by contrast seems designed to be almost completely fan-servicey and lore-drenched, which oddly I expect to enjoy since that's its basic DNA.
-Kenobi, if it happens: of course we don't know what the approach would be, but I have always envisioned it as very, very, lore-lite, a self-contained Yojimbo / Sanjuro-type film that just happens to be on Tatooine and star Obi-Wan. But who knows, I have less and less hope that it will even come to be.

But the move to the trilogies and series seem to indicate that they know there's not much left in those wells anyway. I think the Fett film is doubly or trebly DOA at this point and no big loss there.

 

That was definitely a big part of why I enjoyed 2008's The Clone Wars film so much --- I was so used to EU stories that the relatively unimportant "get hyperspace routes through Hutt Space" storyline wasn't underwhelming for me. It was just fine. I liked that the movie, despite featuring the main cast, didn't aim too high and try to be anything that it wasn't. It was a fun Clone Wars adventure, and seeing Ventress on the silver screen was pretty cool for an EU fan. But I think a lot of non-EU fans walked out of the theater asking themselves "... Wait, why was that a movie?"

 

I think or more that I hope that we begin to move past the “known” characters, times and events. Rogue One and Solo should be the last “appendix” films to the Skywalker story. Rogue One was a test to see if a spin off/anthology would be viable. Solo was part of the deal that got Kasdan on for TFA and was already an idea put forward by Lucas. They were born from the first ideas as spin offs that stayed close to the main storyline so it would not feel too far removed.

We’re now 5+ years into the new Star Wars and Lucasfilm are, at least in my understanding, beginning to see that they do actually need to branch out into the galaxy. Like Marvel who saw that they couldn’t rely on endless Iron Man/Thor/Cap movies I think Disney realizes its need to diversify and expand. This is what I am hoping Favreau’s show, Johnson’s new trilogy and B&W movies are aiming to achieve.

If there were initial plans to do a Kenobi, Fett or young yoda films I believe they would be put aside as they do not have a place in where Star Wars films need to go over the next 5 or so years.

 

Out of all the ideas floated, the Kenobi film sounds the best idea. You have the location already set up without the need to rename it. You have the actor ready and willing to do the role, while the story almost writes itself.

 

I have a similar story with everything Star Wars post '97. I grew up playing games like Jedi Knight and Rebel Assault 2 with their cheesy live action cut scenes, and I compare EVERYTHING off of that now. The prequel films were probably easier for me to take than anyone because they outshined the acting and effects from the former games (and as a result I never had a problem with the acting in those films, I think it's great). It's the same with the Clone Wars. The early animation was a bit stiff but as a fan of some of the weirder aspects of the EU and the aforementioned video games I was totally on board with the stories of even the less popular episodes of that show.

 

Does the story really write itself? I honestly find it very very hard to imagine how you can fill ~2 hours with Obi-Wan wandering on Tatooine in a way that would make for a compelling and successful movie.

 

He wouldn't be just "wandering" - he could be dealing with "Western movie style" problems.

Jabba's thugs, Sandpeople, bounty hunters, and so forth, acting as stand-ins for Western Movie Villains.

 

I was gonna say, the Kenobi EU book story would translate perfectly onto the screen but you said it better than me with this

 

Yes, but that's not exactly "writing itself", is it. Where's the central conflict? The high concept to hang all of those elements on? At least Solo's an origin story for three main characters. I get how a Kenobi film could be more immediately fan-pleasing, but I think there's much less natural story/drama/emotion inherent to the idea than, say, Rogue One.

 

Yeah, as much as I love the character of Obi-Wan and Ewan McGregor, I don't understand the desire for a Kenobi film, or this weird expectation that it's Going To Happen™.

 

I'd be most interested in a Kenobi film that took place before TPM.

 

Bring in Ewan McGregor, Liam Neeson, and Nicole Kidman, slap some of that CGI facelift tech on everyone, and do a live action story about the Mandalorian Civil War.

 

Haha we're blending Satines! The bridge between universes is Satine!

EDIT:
Moulindalorian Rouge!

 

How about a Kenobi movie happening between AOTC and ROTS?

It would also give chance to Hayden to redeem himself. Both him and Ewan still look young enough to play Anakin and Obi-Wan during TCW.

 

I have a feeling a Kenobi film may revolve around a spiritual quest to be a Force ghost (hinted at in ROTS). Liam Neeson can thus be in it. Basically Kenobi's version of Yoda's last few episodes of TCW.

 

Only two months until we FINALLY see Corellia. It's been a long wait.

--Adm. Nick

 

I'm pretty sure what we saw in the trailers so far of Corellia is more than we've ever seen of Alderaan (not counting the Old Republic MMO) and Hosnian Prime, planets we're supposed to have attachments to before they are blown up...

 

Hey remember Lord and Miller working on the movie for months? (which, to be fair, I myself have done a bit of a job of completely forgetting after the trailer hit which was kind of the point) Anonymous actor dishing! I expect maybe a few more of these leading up to the release date

http://www.vulture.com/2018/03/solo-a-star-wars-story-actor-details-production-troubles.html

Vulture spoke to an actor who worked on Solo — for four months under the direction of Miller and Lord last year, and beginning in October with Howard — who provided a blow-by-blow. Although not one of the film’s marquee stars, this source was in a prime position to observe the directors’ contrasting on-set modi operandi. And according to his description, the production was divided into two distinct chapters: one disorganized and chaotic, the other controlled and efficient.