Solo [Official Info] Solo: A Star Wars Story - May 25, 2018

I kind of hope he doesn't. The great thing about Jabba's reveal in ROTJ is that we don't know what he looks like and has this mystery about him that's been built up from the previous two films. Since this film takes place pre-ANH, showing him would ruin that flow IMO. If he does though, it won't be a deal breaker.

 

The special edition is the canon version, so that reasoning doesn't apply.

 

Jabba will be in it. It's like a 95% guarantee.

 

Sorry if this was already discussed, but what do you think of adapting Han's backstory from Legends?

I always liked Han's life story from the old Han Solo Trilogy novels and can't really imagine Larry Kasdan coming up with anything better.

For those who haven't read those, to sum them up:

Han is first a street orphan on Corellia surviving as a thief, then he joins a pirate crew, but drives the line at slavery, because of which, he has to escape from the pirates (saved by an old Wookiee female), joins the Empire and likes it at first, becomes a pilot and an officer, but when he is stationed at Kashyyyk and sees how the Empire treats the Wookiees he snaps and saves one particular Wookiee's life who pledges a life debt to him. Han then became a smuggler for organised crime with his new Wookiee partner, as there really isn't anything else they can do. Han is a deserter and Chewie an escaped slave. And the rest is history...

I know that when I'll be sitting in cinema watching the Han Solo movie, I'll be comparing in my mind Han's backstory the whole time to his old Legends backstory, and if it isn't at least this good, I'll probably not be very happy.

 

I really hope it's nothing like that. That sounds terrible to me.

 

This film could just be an adventure story "a few days in the life of Han Solo" or similar... His backstory might just be mentioned in a few lines ala The Clone Wars in ANH

 

Care to elaborate?

What I like about this backstory is that each part of Han's life works in making him the person he is in the OT, and even in TFA. I don't like the idea of Han just becoming a smuggler because its the "cool" thing to do or because he's from some backwater planet and this was the only job he could find that would get him of the planet.

The Han Solo Trilogy novels were written before the prequels, so there are some things that don't work so well anymore, but you can take them and make changes to improve Han's story to better fit with the current Star Wars feel.

For example, I would make Han a war orphan from the Clone Wars, whose parents died during Separatist occupation of Corellia. This would explain Han's motivation in joining the Empire as a young man, as he would see the clone troopers/stormtroopers as the good guys who defeated the Separatists in the beginning. He could learn piloting in the Imperial Academy and it would explain why he is so comfortable pretending to be an Imperial officer and knows so much about the Imperial fleet in the OT. It would also create a new connection he has with Finn in TFA, as he would see even more of himself in Finn, as they are both Imperial/First Order deserters. This creates a nice connection between the prequel, original and sequel trilogy. It would also give us a chance to see Kashyyyk under Imperial occupation, something I really want after I read Aftermath Life Debt, where it is described as basically a planet wide concentration death camp, thou this might be a bit too dark for Lucasfilm/Disney.

Thou maybe Avnar is right, and it will just be a "few days in the life of Han Solo" and they will decide to make his origins a mystery, but that would be a huge missed opportunity in my opinion...

 

interesting, how he got his name? Does he mean as a famous smuggler or that his name is not his birth name?
Inside the Magic‏ @InsideTheMagic 1m1 minute ago

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.@RobertIger on Han Solo movie: You’ll see him meet Chewie, get the Falcon, and how he got his name.

 

Since you asked, I'll see if I can distill it down. My overall gripe is that they were trying to retroactively make a character, and it ends up feeling like a mediocre story.

1) Of course he's an orphan. Then he can be a cool lone wolf like Aladdin. Its just contrived.
2) Convenient morals so we don't dislike the character. Also contrived.
3) Saved by a wookie so that he can care about wookies in the future. Why does he need a reason to like Wookies? We've already established he's anti slavery.
4) So learning to pilot from the empire can be legit, it's what Luke was going to do; But I would prefer that Han already know how to fly. Also Han is an orphan/thief/pirate but then joins the ??empire??. The empire would have been antagonistic to Han his whole life, Han wouldn't join them and they wouldn't take him. Han's knowledge of Imperial tactics can be best explained by the fact that they have been his adversary his entire life.
5) This is the part that I most hope that they break from tradition. Chewie is the damsel in distress. Han saves him from a life of slavery. Blah. First off, Chewie has never ever been shown to need saving. Han frequently does. Second Wookies live for like 400 years; Chewie isn't the loyal dog in this trope, Han is.

So what do I think it should be?
First, isn't Corellia a ship building nexus? Thats why Han knows how to fly. He grew up in and around ships. You don't even need to show this in a film.

Second Han is shown to be pretty much always in over his head, so I think having him start as a criminal is a bad move. Han starts as a legit cargo pilot hauling freight. Maybe he's saving up to buy his own ship. The empire isn't antagonistic, it's just a nuisance. Lots of red tape.

Third, Han "saves" Chewie. Does this have to happen? Is it cannon? If so it should go down like this: Han is doing a legit supply run to Kashyyyk. Docks his ship, cargo is unloaded. So far easy peasy. All of a sudden like 50 wookies run out of the woods and start taking out Troopers and are making for Han's ship. Wookies board the ship and demand that Han take off. Han refuses and draws down on them, but then realizes that these are mostly kids and old wookies. Han changes his mind and tries to get even more wookies on board before he takes off. Han talks (maybe shoots) his way past the planetary blockade and Chewie is so gratefull and impressed with Han he decides to adopt him.

Fourth, Canon-ball Run. Last act of the movie should be the race. The stakes should be high. Han should have been double crossed by his posse by now. Now it's just Han and chewie and some illicit cargo. racing in a possibly sanctioned race. If Han wins the deal goes down good if he looses he gets busted with the cargo.

Anyway, just a spitball of an idea. I think a lot of the EU was not so great and pretty paint-by-numbers... in a bad way. I don't nessisarily think that I could write better, but I don't think that it would be that hard.

Edit:
Interesting about the timeline. Age 18-24, alot can happen in that space.

 

so he's 18-24 years old...

let's go on the assumption he's 30 years old in ANH.

this movie would fit 7-13 years before ANH.

 

The thing about his name I took to be more his reputation in the underworld than revealing that "Han Solo" isn't his birth name.

 

Well, Rogue One...

 

The movie will cover six years? So...huh...I hope it doesn't come across as a big montage like "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story". I'm actually being serious. That movie never settled into a groove. It just hopped from one time period to the next and then the next thing you know the movies over.

EDIT: I hope this isn't merely a collection Han Solo greatest hits. Hey remember that thing you heard about in the other movies? Well here it is! Seems thin.

 

Well, if there is something that we can be sure of is that the Empire will be in there. So, more retro stuff. Is it a good thing? I don't know, I'm scared a bit for this movie. There going to have to not over spend on budget, create a good story and have very good effects that aren't too simple, yet are complicated enough that we star wars fans can say hell yeah this was good. In the end, it comes down to the box office. If the movie is good, then people will see it, which translates to money spent, which means more movies. I know this is not like GL style of thinking, but, every star wars movie must be good. We know already without knowing that Episode 8 and 9 will be very good and each should easily make over a billion dollars, but this movie. well, I'm not even sure if the movie will clear $750 million. It's a bit pessimistic and I don't want to sound like Poefinn rey, but this title just doesn't jive with me. Niether would a Boba Fett stand alone movie, unless, your thinking of adding Cad Bane and all those other cool bounty hunters from TCW. Then that could be different.

 

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Funny bit we heard. There have been lots of titles being thrown around for the #HanSolo movie. One of them was the simple "Captain Solo"!

 

Which callbacks and cameos do you think we'll get? I'm thinking we'll see one or more of the bounty hunters from the OT. Perhaps a Boba Fett cameo,or maybe just a glimpse of his ship. Something about always shooting first. Somebody saying "never tell me the odds." Somebody saying "I've got a bad feeling about this one". Han saying "trust me".

What else?

 

The thought of the amount of callbacks, cameos, and references they could make with this movie makes me excited.

 

concerning the how he got his name part

http://ew.com/movies/2017/03/23/dis.../?xid=entertainment-weekly_socialflow_twitter

 

what if Han Solo is like the man with no name from those Clint Eastwood movies? That character gets called Blondie, Manco, Joe by others. Could Solo have been a name given to him by someone else?

 

I wonder if we could see it structured as a series of flashbacks. Maybe actually see Harrison Ford on screen again with Billy Dee Williams and Chewbacca (pre TFA of course, but still in their 60's) sitting in a cantina reminiscing about the "good old days". Could be a fun and unique way to frame the film - instead of a seemingly random series of events.

Then it can also be a tie-in to the sequel era, with references to "Ben" and the struggle with marriage vs smuggling.

 

I would love to see that. It would make the Han Solo movie 10 times better.